(Tremor's OP Corner):To Aru Shinobu no RPG Sekai Monogatari
by Tremor230
Summary: "The Tale of a certain Shinobi in a RPG World" if I translated it properly. An End-of-the-manga Naruto transported into a world following Games rules in an RPG-Like setting. Elements from various sources taken to 'shape' him and the story's world. Mostly RE: Monster and Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken. AU. OOC. Rated M so not for kids. It's an experiment so do not expect much
1. Chapter 1

**The core material comes from both** _RE:Monster_ **and** _Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken_ ( **Especially the former whose start and** **main** **character I am using to '** _ **Shape'**_ **Naruto in this** **Fic** ) _ **,**_ **but I will** **then follow** _ **"**_ _Generic_ **"** _ **RPG**_ **Rules.**

 **T** **he setting as well is all "** _Original_ **" coming from me bar few details here and there I'll take from those two Light Novels and others like "** _TOARU OSSAN NO VRMMO KATSUDOUKI_ " **.**

 _ **Crackish**_ **? Maybe (I don't know) it won't be** **always** **a serious angst-fest that's for sure, you others should know me by now,** **Dammit** **!**

 **I'll change the blond's "** _ **Mannerism"**_ **a little if you don't mind, just to warn you** **since I don't want to write him as the "canon" goofball** **he is** **.** **Sorry! XD**

 **P** **airing:** **Naru/** **Mi (From** _ **Re: Monster**_ **) / Albedo (from** _ **Overlord)**_ **and third (AND LAST): '** _ **Readers Choice'**_ **as long as** **she** **comes from an RPG/** **(VR)MMO** **-related Manga/Light Novel/Anime/.**

" **You bastard"** \- demon talking / jutsu

"Let's finish this" - dialogue

" _Can it get any worse?_ " - during flashback/thoughts

 **His companions (' _Guild_ _')_ will contain "** _Rimuru Tempest_ ** _"_ (Pretty much identical to the one in **_tensei shitara slime datta ken_ **LN/Manga, only modified to fit in this story _)_ and then mostly OCs of the various species of RPG Settings I hope to manage to keep in tone with their _"Canon"_ counterparts...sorry if I make few mistakes, I won't do it on purpose. This time.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or whatever I will use here in this fic.**

 **Chapter 1: The first Chapters are always an Info-Dumps, so let's be strong and pretend we both care about World-building so to then reach the fun parts later.**

 **Konoha – ruins of the Valley of the end -**

"CLOSE! CLOSE DAMMIT!" a pink-haired girl was screaming while crying as her glowing hands kept rhythmically pressing down on a young man's chest to make the giant hole in his chest close.

"Hey, Sakura-chan...sorry for Sasuke's face...and the left half of his head." the young blond man said with a weak smile.

"Don't talk! Please at least you stay alive!" Sakura pleaded while pumping as much chakra she could on her old friend's wound.

"...I blew half his head away. Sorry."

"It was inevitable, but he fought for his ideals until the end." another man, this one with silver hair, said while still cradling the blond man's head on his legs to help Sakura.

"I-I-I Can't close the wound, Kakashi-sensei! WHY CAN'T I CLOSE IT?!" Sakura asked with an hysteric tone.

"Naruto's body is at its limits, I can't feel Kurama either so the Biju too must be too exhausted to help." Kakashi Hatake answered with a void tone as his eyes were unblinkingly locked on Naruto's unfocused ones, as if to commit to memory every detail of the blond.

"The Jutsu was supposed to just knock him out...But his and mine reacted badly." Naruto muttered weakly.

"He was too much into his own grief-filled madness to stop, you did your best for years to save him, it was way more than what others would have done in your place; in the end he was a lost cause." Kakashi answered.

"So I'll never be Hokage?" Naruto asked making the other two chuckle despite their sadness.

"Even now you talk about it. Please never change, baka." Sakura muttered as by now she was relying on her memory about where the wound was as the stream of tears had become too intense for her to clearly see him.

 **Inside Naruto's mind – in the Meantime -**

" _So I am dying?_ " the blond thought as he felt too weak to even talk.

" **So it seems, but I'll follow you soon after, we won't be alone in there at least,** **it's still something** **."** another voice replied equally weakly.

" _Can't you heal me?_ " Naruto asked.

" **I can't...** **T** **he Uchiha** **bastard** **forced us to use every last drop of chakra you had and I am still recovering from the fight with** **Madara and** **Kaguya** **to do something** **.** "

" _Never thought I would have missed your healing powers..."_

- _Configuration accepted! Skill (_ _ **Regeneration LV1**_ _) Acquired! -_

" _I should have been stronger..._ " Naruto said sadly while watching the dead body of his old friend lying next to him with his head reduced to a burned lump only half its original size.

" **Stronger? Huhuhu! More than what you were?** " Kurama answered amused.

" _More and more!...If only I could get stronger by eating Ramen..._ "

" **You can't get stronger by eating,** **You fool.** " the Biju said with a sad smile as the feeling of Naruto's life slowly fading away was breaking his heart.

\- _Configuration accepted! Skill (_ _ **Consume**_ _) Acquired! -_

" **Okay now, what the hell is happening!?** **I know I heard someone talk just now!** **WHO'S THERE?!** _ **"**_ **Kurama bellowed into the void.**

" _Whatever,_ _I don't care anymore_..." he said with his face scrunching up.

" **What's wrong?"**

" _M_ _y_ _chest_ _burns!_ _it hurts! It_ _burns! It's too h_ _ot!_ _"_

\- _Confirmed. Establishing_ _(_ _ **heat resistance**_ _ **)**_ _. Success -_

" **You have an hole the size of a watermelon in your chest...That** **kind of things** **is lethal."**

 **-** _Confirmed. Establishing_ _ **P**_ _ **ierce**_ _ **R**_ _ **esistance**_. Success. -

LEVEL UP! _**P**_ _ **ierce**_ _ **R**_ _ **esistance**_ _evolved into_ _ **P**_ _ **hysical attack**_ _ **R**_ _ **esistance**_. -

"STAY WITH ME, NARUTO! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DIE ON ME!" Sakura's horrified voice was now barely cutting through the fog forming around the blond's mind.

"I...I...Gah..." The blond valiantly tried to speak, but no words came out except for gurgling sounds as blood kept filling his mouth.

" **Naruto?"** Kurama asked as he too slumped down on the floor of the Seal to drag himself closer to the young man's body.

" _I no longer feel neither pain nor the burning. But it's cold. So cold..._ "

" **It means that the time has come, soon you won't feel cold anymore, don't worry."** the Biju said with a reassuring smile.

 _\- Confirmed. Establishing **C** **old** **R** **esistance**. Success!-_

 _\- LEVEL UP! **H** **eat** **R** **esistance** and **Cold Resistance** have successfully evolved into **T** **hermal** **F** **luctuation** **R** **esistance EX -**_

" **You Know?** **It may be that we both are just hallucinating and hearing voices...But a** **ll this talking about Resistances** **makes me wonder** **...Should there really be a next life, try to learn to be immune to Lightning...Just** **in case** **another lightning-spamming asshole shows-up** **.** " The Biju said with a weak laugh.

" _If that happens,_ _I'll_ _try to_ _have a diet rich of rubber, I promise._ " Naruto answered chuckling.

 _\- Establishing **E** **lectricity** **R** **esistance**. Success. -_

 _\- As a result **P** **aralysis** **R** **esistance** has been also acquired-_

" _What will await us?"_ the dying blond asked.

" **I do not know. But w** **herever we are going, I hope we'll be together, without my Great Wisdom you would die in a matter of minutes** **if I am not there** **helping you** **!"** The Biju answered laughing.

" _Fuck you, Fur-ball..."_ Naruto said with a sad smile as both his Life and Kurama's finally faded away leaving behind two desperate ninja silently sending their prayers to both dead warriors as they freely left their tears flow down.

- _Configuration accepted!_ _Unique_ _Minor_ _Blessing_ _(_ _ **Great**_ _ **Wisdom of the Trickster God**_ _) Acquired! -_

The voice said faintly, barely heard by the two dying souls as everything got covered by endless darkness.

 **Unknown amount of Time later – somewhere -**

"Aaaah! This one looks promising!" an old-sounding voice said elated.

" _Eh?"_ Naruto thought sleepy, feeling as if his body was made of lead while his brain seemed to have troubles rebooting.

"Yes, yes! Breath in! That's how it's done." the old voice said in approval.

" _Where am I?_ "

When he finally managed to crack open an eye against the protests of his heavy eyelids the blond shinobi saw a woman with green skin and an ugly face look down at him in satisfaction.

"This, this is a strong one...Good. Very, very good." the old woman said nodding while Naruto rapidly fell back into slumber.

 **The next Day – Cave -**

It was a cave, that much the now awake Naruto could tell, he was in the barely-lit depths of a damp cave, surrounded by half a dozen ugly babies with green skin; and he was apparently one of them if his own small and green-skinned hands were any indication.

" _W-Wha?!_ " still too young to speak the former blond could only mentally gape at what he was seeing as he flexed his tiny fingers.

" _What are those...Things?_ " he thought half curious and half worried while watching the babies around him.

[ **They are** **Goblins** ] a far-away echo reached his ears weakly in answer.

" _Goblins? Who's talking?"_

No answer came this time, but in exchange the other babies started stirring awake themselves, some wailing loudly and others simply trying to crawl forward driven by their curiosity.

" _So I am a baby?..._ _Okay..._ _WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!"_ once again unable to talk, Naruto simply opted to scream mentally; although he screamed out loud as well, but as he was just reborn (Apparently) he didn't sound out of place in the general cacophony of voices.

"Strong and with good lungs as well, HAHAHAHA!" he heard the old goblin woman say from outside with her laugh soon followed by other adults laughing as well.

" _From a strong badass shinobi to an ugly baby...I must have pissed-off someone up there, there is no other explanation!_ " the former blond muttered sighing, there wasn't even the solace of being a baby mentally as well since he could clearly remember who and what he was before...before whatever happened happened.

The true surprise was what he discovered the day after that, he and the others had apparently grow-up overnight at an astounding rate and he was now matching in sizes his old body of around his first Academy Days back in Konoha...But there was a difference that was separating him from the other goblins of his age group.

"Uh! No way..." the young goblin muttered as he felt the build-up sensation of chakra flowing through his body as soon as he had tried calling upon it by reflex.

The trigger? He had been ' _Testing'_ his body for a couple hours by running, punching and kicking in mock fights when one of the older Goblins had thought that grabbing Naruto by the legs to lift him would have been a nice idea for a prank; the former blond's answer had been as natural as breathing as soon as he went upside-down: Turn around to deliver a Chakra-Empowered punch to the balls of the guy making the adult Goblin fall on the ground spasming and shrieking in an high-pitched voice while cupping his _treasure_.

"KYYYYYAAAAAAAAH!" the scream reverberated in the cave loud enough to have dust fall from the ceiling making every other noise die-down for an instant, THEN the laughs started along fingers being pointed towards the downed adult.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Goblin-Sa got his nuts smashed! AH! This is rich!" a near adult said in great amusement.

"We have the youngest Goblin with a title ever! ' _The Balls Smasher'!_ Bwahahahaha!" another said making a new round of laughs bloom in the cave.

"Not as strong as I was when I died, but definitely stronger than when I was an Academy Student...At least I have not completely returned to square one." Naruto muttered to himself while using some rags to create a crude-looking loincloth to cover himself and then walking outside the cave ignoring the others.

(They had also decided to name him _Goblin-Nori_...Thanks but no thanks! His father called him Naruto Namikaze and he will use THAT name instead of the shitty goblin one, thank you very much!).

 _Sigh!_ "Eeh! Let's see if I remember the training I did with Kakashi-sensei and Ero-sennin, at least I will have a chance of survival here." Naruto said sighing, steeling his resolve and running against a tree to walk on it only to slid down after three steps.

"...This will take a while..." the young goblin muttered from his laying on the ground.

 **Several weeks later – forest -**

It had took almost a month to Naruto to recover his old Chakra control, even if all things considered he was still not perfect he was satisfied with the results he had gained in his secret training.

Goblins, he discovered, had no concept of ' _training'_ , to them one either survived or not; it was an harsh rule about the survival of the strongest as the weak where weeded-out by natural selection.

The old Goblin woman the Elder of the tribe, said that he was one of the few ' _good ones'_ as out of the two dozen goblins born only five or six survived the delivery like him, and with how things were going even less were expected to fully reach adult-hood; their own ' _tribe'_ was a small one counting ten or so individuals of a race with low birth-rate, with those numbers and the numerous raids of beasts it was a wonder their group had yet to be wiped-out completely.

Naruto had not exactly bonded with any of the other males nor with the sole female that were born with him though, he tried mind you, but those seemed to have ingrained in their mind the concept of walking over each other to survive; and while it was an acceptable mind-set in their environment, the former blond instead had spent all his previous life following the ideals of ' _Friends help each other'_ and ' _Teamwork for the Win'_ so it was not easy for him to conform.

Dying once had also helped him learn that it was useless to help the ones that truly didn't want to be helped, the attack to his life by two other Goblins for his rations of bugs because they were still hungry was more than enough to help him decide to leave all of them to themselves.

" _It is not like hunting these bunnies is actually hard_ _either_ _! Compared to_ _catching_ _Tora this is easy._ " Naruto thought to himself as he was standing immobile on a tree branch to observe his prey under him.

Today it was a fluffy rabbit-like creature with a long drill-shaped horn sprouting from its forehead that was peacefully eating grass under the shadows of the same tree he was standing on.

The critter was cute and adorable with a puffy tail and the cutest long ears imaginable; that's why the young goblin felt kinda bad when he jumped down with a big rock held high above his head to smash the little Hornet Rabbit's skull to pieces splattering its grey matter everywhere.

"Lunch is served!" Naruto said smiling as he sat down to eat the thing raw with big bites.

[ _Skill_ _ **'Easy Escape'**_ _Learned!_ ] a voice echoed in Naruto's head.

"Eh! That should be the last thing these pets have to ' _teach'_ me, I guess." the young Goblin muttered pleased between mouthfuls while still scanning his surroundings.

He was forced to eat outside away from the others to stop attacks from the lazy bastards he shared a Race with; Goblin in the end could be either easy-going and kinda dumb or violent and easy to anger; his whole year-group pretty much fell solely on the latter group: they called them " _Naturally-born Warriors"_ , but Naruto preferred " _Hot-blooded Morons"_ since to him the term suited them better.

[ _Obtained "Medium Animal Horn"!_ ]

"Another?" he said chuckling while checking the horn in his hands he took from the dead rabbit.

"[ **A medium-sized Horn took from an Horned Rabbit – not the best weapon, but better than using your** **own** **fists: ATK +2]...Yes, every time you kill one** **and take their horn** **you get that message and I have to repeat all that stuff** **when you ask what is it** **.** " a very well-known voice replied huffing in annoyance.

It had happened a week after he had started training his ninja arts, as soon as he had Mastered ( _Again)_ tree-walking a metallic voice had said with a dull tone:

 _[Skill ? Acquired!]_

When he had wondered what that voice was and what it meant with that message, Kurama's voice had rang inside his head detailing the name " **Tree-Walking"** along a short description about it being an out-worldly ability making him walk on trees; curiously the message re-appeared, but this time showing the correct name on it.

It seemed that whatever had Naruto be reborn had took Kurama along the ride, but in exchange turning the Biju into something called ' _a_ _Minor Blessing'_ going by the name _(_ _ **Great**_ _ **Wisdom of the Trickster God**_ _)_ represented by a small red orb the size of a cherry embedded on Naruto's forehead (third eye area) that gifted the reborn shinobi with greater-than-normal appraisal ability.

Other abilities included raised thought processing speed by a thousand times, the ability to analyze and make judgments regarding a target faster than normal, the possibility to detach thoughts and analysis of phenomenon ( _Parallel Processing_ ) and the ability to comprehend any non-concealed phenomenon.

The only thing Kurama didn't like was his being forced to repeat over and over the same explanation when asked AND being defined a " _MINOR"_ Blessing, the latter because of his pride.

"Well, better change zone then, I want to see if there are more prey around." Naruto said getting up and dusting himself.

" **You are adapting well.** "

"Is not like I have any other choice! I have to thank my will to train if I had not snapped immediately. As soon as I have recovered my abilities as a Ninja I am leaving this place."

" **Leaving?** "

"I want to see this world and how different it is! I may not be able to be Hokage anymore, but I am sure as Hell that I want to make a name for myself all the same."

" **You mean** **becoming** **an Hero?** "

"I don't think people see Goblins as heroes, the only humans I have seen had been the adventurers that had ambushed some of the older Goblins to keep the roads safe for the merchants...At best I can become a well-respected mercenary if I show a bit more intelligence than the others."

" **Like no attacking your clients?** "

"Yep! Let's hope it will be enough to have them give me a chance." the young goblin answered as he spotted a near river and rapidly developing a craving for fish as soon as a particularly fat one jumped-out of the water for an instant.

Horn in one hand and a song in his heart the reborn shinobi hummed his way towards the water with his stomach grumbling on time with the tune.

 **Several helpings of fish later -**

"Say...How long before I reach LV 100?" he asked while lazily watching his reflection in the water, other than three birth-marks resembling his old whiskers his face was that of a normal (Bald!) male goblin but with sharper canines protruding out from his mouth and slightly-pointed eyelids.

" **What? Anxious of becoming an Hobgoblin?** " Kurama asked amused.

He had learned thanks to Kurama that in that world "Levels" existed, once reached 100 he could choose to _evolve_ into a new species called Hobgoblin, and from there other ' _Branches'_ of Evolution would then open to him; the Elder Goblin added more info through her speeches to the newborns whenever one asked about **Pros** and **Cons** of each _Evolution_.

"Hopefully I won't be as ugly once evolved...so?" Naruto asked annoyed.

" **Meh! Almost there, it will be a matter of days at worst, depending on the next thing you kill and eat.** "

"I gain the abilities of what I eat if I consume a large enough number of them...I told you I would have found a way to get stronger by eating!" the young Goblin said smirking.

" **Tche! You were just lucky!** **And you meant Ramen, not eating EVERYTHING objects and harmful** **stuff** **comprised!** **YESTERDAY YOU HAVE EATEN A DAGGER FOR FUCK'S SAKE!** " the Blessing answered snarling.

"And got a bit more Exp for my [ _ **Slash Damage Resistance**_ ] Sub-Stat because of it, but those are details! It doesn't change the fact that I did it!" the other replied smugly.

" **...I hate you."**

No matter how hard, dangerous, inedible, foul, potentially Toxic or such, there was ANYTHING Naruto could not eat; and as soon as he did give it a bite it all became harmless (in some cases even _delicious_ to contrast the taste) and the reborn blond could immediately absorb whatever " _Power",_ " _Skill"_ or _"Ability"_ He/she/it possessed that he could then make stronger with repetitive use, although for living beings eating their Heart and Brain had the best chances of absorbing one or more abilities...

Was he _broken_ then? Overpowered?

FUCK YEAH! FINALLY IT WAS HIS TURN TO BE LIKE THAT, _DATTEBAYO!_

 **A month later – Woods near the cave -**

Still not Level 100, it seemed that the higher the level was the more _EXP_ he needed to absorb to Level Up, it was very troublesome for someone like Naruto that never liked to wait.

"And now is starting to rain too. Better return to the cave." he muttered sighing as fat drops of rain kept obscuring his vision.

He had left the cave as soon as the sun had rose to dodge everyone and now was almost night with the first stars popping out slowly in the sky.

But as soon as he finally reached the small entrance of the cave the young Goblin was forced to dive in the near bushes to not be seen, right in front of the entrance leading deep underground there was a fat monster with a pig head mounting guard while patting a mean-looking club on his open palm.

"What the..."

" **That's an Orc.** " Kurama supplied.

"What are they doing here?"

As if to answer Naruto another Orc came out dragging behind himself a dead Goblin so to throw it in a neat pile of bodies the reborn shinobi had not noticed when he arrived, that one was soon followed by a third one dragging outside two human women by their ankle, thought while they were alive both of them were also unresponsive and catatonic.

"What have they done to them?" he dared asking.

" **Is it possible they already were like that, Naruto.** " the Biju-turned-Skill answered with a dead tone.

"W-What do you mean?"

 _TWACK! CRUNCH!_ With an uncaring hit of his club One of the Orcs had in the meantime slammed his weapon on one of the women's chest making her let out a suffocated gurgle along spitting a thick mouthful of blood before dropping her head to the side, dead.

"Uff! _"_ the Orc mounting guard just gave a displeased grunt before kicking the dead human closer to the pile of Goblin corpses.

" **How do you think Goblin reproduce?** "

"W-W-With female Goblins?" Naruto said with a horrified tone, clearly already knowing the answer but hoping to be wrong.

" **Too low birth-rate like that, human women are more fertile...Being willing is not an issue.** " Kurama answered.

It was like an out-of-body experience for the reborn Shinobi, an instant he was looking at the dead eyes of the human girl that was probably the one that gave birth to him, and the next he had distractingly grabbed a near viper snake trying to sneak on him to behead it with a bite.

[ _Skill ' **Poison Creation'** Acquired – ' **Poison Resistance'** Acquired]_ came the answer he was waiting for.

As soon as the two Orcs had returned inside leaving the guard alone the still dazed Naruto had sneaked behind the pig-like monster to throw a rock near it to distract the thing, as soon as he had been sure the Orc was too engrossed in looking for the source of the noise to notice him the reborn shinobi grabbed the rabbit horn with both hands immediately coating it in a thick purple liquid.

"GUOH!?" the Orc barely could growl-out as he felt something jump on his back, turning around he could see an arm circle his neck and an hand covering his mouth before all turned black.

"Be quiet." the young Goblin hissed using his free hand to plunge as hard as he could the poisoned horn in the monster's eye-socket until he felt the squishy sensation of the tip reaching and piercing the brain, twisting the thing around in a bout of merciless anger to be sure the beast could not retaliate.

Although the Orc could still throw Naruto away with a powerful shove and stagger few steps towards him, the poison along the heavy damage to his head was still too much, making it fall on its knees with a grunt as it still tried to reach the Goblin.

"Persistent bastard..." Naruto muttered as he grabbed the heavy club the monster had dropped to test if he could swing it well enough.

"Don't worry, the others will join you soon enough." he then said with a monotone as he lifted the thing above his head.

 _CRUNCH! SPLAT!_ In a veritable explosion of gore the Orc's head got shattered to pieces drenching the front of the Goblin's face and body.

"...We are no longer in Konoha, right?"

" **No."** Kurama answered stiffly.

"I am no longer human, eh?"

" **Neither...** "

"So I no longer have the luxury of being shown mercy?"

" **Humans have the freedom of choice and can decide to help each other, everywhere else is all about the survival of the strongest: if you are weak you get killed and eaten, but if you are strong you eat and get respect. In the end it is still like back in the Elemental Countries, only this time you are seeing things from the other side.** "

"So?"

" **You already destroyed the brain, so eat that thing's heart and...and both from those Goblins and the Human girls.** "

"What?!"

" **They are dead and you may need whatever _Skill_ and _Abilities_ those possessed to survive and grow stronger, those Orcs are probably here to settle in the caves so they just removed the Goblins inside. Eat the dead and leave before they notice us, you don't know how many there are in there.** " Kurama explained sighing.

"...Okay." the other answered with a defeated tone.

Dragging the various corpses away he moved in a more hidden alcove to watch an Orc drag out a new dead Goblin, look around for his missing companion and then return inside with an almost-human shrug of his shoulders.

 **Later that night -**

One human girl had been a _Ranger_ , meaning she had a decent ability with bow and throwing weapons along _Perks_ making her footing remain unchanged no matter the instability of the terrain.

The other was a beginner in Blacksmithing and had some wood-working and potion-crafting knowledge rounding her edges, that one was almost grateful to be killed by Naruto, actually smiling at him in pure gratitude as soon as her broken mind understood what he was about to do.

"They were a young adventurer and a crafting student...both my age when I returned from my training with Ero-sennin..." he muttered while making his way underground following the loud snoring of the sleeping Orcs, he was barely keeping his impulse of vomiting in check the whole time.

" **Naruto..."** Kurama muttered sadly.

Seeing how ' _inexperienced'_ he still was and how far he still was in recovering his ninja training, the young Goblin had decided to wait until night came to sneak inside and deliver his own justice on the Orcs; all the snakes he had eaten gifted him to something akin to _**Heat Vision**_ , like that he could check who was around and so discovering that most of the monsters were in fact asleep.

" _Where is he?_ " one of the few awake asked grunting.

" _Don't care, more food for us!_ " the other Orc answered laughing as he gave a new bite to what looked like being a Goblin's femur.

Eating one of them gave Naruto basic knowledge of their language along giving him the [ ** _Vigour_** ] Skill: in exchange of doubling the usage of Stamina for an attack, the Attack Power of said hit would also get double for a short period of time; along the [ _ **Big Orc Club**_ ] weapon he had pilfered would hopefully be enough to fight should the need arise.

Soon he had found what he was looking for, the sleeping area of the Orcs, carefully walking between them he watched as a solitary drop of bluish liquid dripped from his finger to their open mouths as they snored, even should it not kill them, that poison should weak them enough.

Passed them it was a rapid pillage of whatever junk the Goblins had amassed in their ' _Storage Room'_ inside a worn-out [ _ **Bag of Holding**_ ] he took from the dead Goblin Elder able to contain everything like a Sealing Scroll to then walk back outside towards the two awake guards.

" _No other humans though._ " one of them said annoyed.

" _No fun if they don't struggle, can we eat the dead one?_ " the other answered.

" _Can't find it, the others already took it_."

" _Pfeh! Not fair_."

At hearing that, Naruto could once again feel the blood pump hard in his ears along the throbbing of his jaw as he clenched his teeth hard, focusing Chakra in his arms and pumping almost half his Stamina in the [ ** _Vigour_** ] Skill he swung the club horizontally catching the Orc on the temple before jumping the other without checking if the first was dead or just dazed.

" _WHO ARE- GUACK!_ " the second guard squealed-out as both he and Naruto tumbled on the floor.

"DIE!" the reborn Shinobi roared hitting the Orc's head with the club again and again until it's skull turned to splinters of bone lost between a goo of pounded flesh.

"GRAAAH!" in the meantime the other guard had recovered enough to charge Naruto in blind rage for his turning the Orc's face into minced meat.

Dodging the furious charge making the monster slam against the cave's wall, the young Goblin jumped on the Orc's back to repetitively stab it with the dagger he took from the storage until the blade got stuck in the back of the beast's neck breaking in half from the force behind the attack.

"Dead?" Naruto asked aloud panting while letting the guard fall down limp on the floor.

" **Yes, and the others will be awake by now, so let's just go.** " Kurama answered as angry voices had started reaching them, apparently of the ten Orcs in there, more than half (the weakest of the crop) had succumbed to the poison, the ones still alive were now furious about the surprise attack and were looking for revenge.

"So be it." he answered hurrying away before they could reach him, taking away a small part of the two guards' meat to try and see if they had more to give him.

" **It's time to leave the forest then, is not like there is anything else keeping you here,** "

"Yeah."

 **Some time later -**

Without having the faintest idea about where he was and where to go, Naruto opted to follow the small river flowing near the cave he had been born into downwards to see where it would take him, he still possessed the Stamina he had in his previous life, so keeping running and tree-jumping at night as well instead of sleeping was not an issue either.

It was after three long days of endless wandering that he stumbled upon another Goblin, a female dressed in rags, sitting down on the floor with her back pressed against a tree wildly flaying around a stick to keep an Horned Rabbit at bay while crying for help.

"...Really?" Naruto muttered in disbelief as the girl kept shrieking every time the rabbit moved too close.

 **With the Goblin Girl -**

She was scared, she had hurt her leg while hunting by herself and was now trying to keep away the rabbit to stop it from impaling her on its horn; the Elder had told her she was too weak and to stick to berries and nuts, but she had heard about rabbit's meat tasting good so she wanted to try!

 _Kriiiii!_

In the end the Horned Rabbit had grow annoyed enough to just charge forward horn-first to kill the Goblin that had disturbed its eating making her let out an ear-piercing " _Kyaaaah!_ " scream of fear.

Before the tip could reach her though another Goblin had dropped from the tree branch above her to hit the animal with a big sturdy club slamming the rabbit's head down on the grass with a sickening _Crunch!_ Noise killing it instantly.

"...Are you okay?" Naruto asked kneeling down to look at the girl.

"Uh?" she muttered, slowly opening her eyes to see who was her savior.

"I asked if you are okay,"

Her answer to the question was pouncing on him to hug him as tightly as she could.

"Eeeh! It was nothing, instead of hugging me, do you want to eat with me?" the reborn shinobi asked chuckling while holding the dead rabbit up by its horn.

"You...You are giving it to me?" she asked faintly.

"Sharing more likely," he said smiling.

Splitting the small thing between them the two began eating with the female Goblin munching down with gusto while moaning in bliss.

"...It's amazing..." she finally muttered once they finished eating.

"Uh?"

"You can hunt Horned Rabbits by yourself! It's amazing!" she replied with starry eyes.

"By myself?"

"Other Goblins usually get killed by their horns if they are not careful, so it takes two to hunt them! You must be really strong!"

" **Considering the standard IQ of the Goblins we saw in your cave while you grew-up...Dying at the hands of those small things is not so unbelievable, I bet they usually blindly charge them without a strategy, that's why they get killed so easily.** " Kurama answered in disbelief.

"Why were you hunting alone then?" Naruto asked curious.

"I was hungry and the older Goblins told me I had to hunt by myself, so I tried to see if I could catch something different from berries, but the one hunting with me got scared by the rabbit and ran leaving me alone; I have hurt my leg trying to escape and was about to die when you arrived!" she answered.

"You hurt your leg? Let me see." he asked.

"Thank you..."

Said that the girl simply presented her feet to him, and he felt his cheeks burn while he caressed her leg to check for injuries; contrary to other female Goblins this one had more delicate features and wild hair on her head, along a smooth skin he had been surprised to find on such a being (not that he had interacted with other Female Goblins so to make comparisons to begin with).

"Nothing serious, let me fix it a little and in a couple of days you'll be fine." Naruto said as he took part of the loincloth he was wearing to bandage her ankle.

"What are you-WHOA!" she asked before he took her in his arms to carry her.

"I'll take you back to your tribe, to where?"

"Uhm...Uhm..." the girl muttered looking at him in discomfort.

" _Even Goblin can be cute..._ " he thought absently.

"Yes?"

"C-Can I stay with you?" she asked whispering.

"Why?"

"In my cave the others ignore me because I am weak, but you are strong and cool...please let me stay!"

"Cool?!"

"Yes! You can hunt, you helped me and gave me Rabbit's meat...You are cool! More than every other Goblin I have ever seen." she answered honestly.

 _Sigh!_ "Want me to help you become stronger?" Naruto asked sighing.

"You can do that?!" she said shocked.

"I am leaving the woods to see the world, but I can help you get stronger before that."

"Can I come with you then?"

"You would leave this place with me?"

"Yes!"

"Ookay! Let's first fix your leg, then we'll start training. I am Naruto, nice to meet you." the reborn shinobi said smiling.

"Naruto? Hihihi! It's a silly name!" the girl answered giggling.

"Hey!" he said pouting.

"But I like it too, I am Goblin Mi!" Mi answered.

"Can I call you Mi then?"

"Of course you can!"

"Very well! Let's go find some place quiet to stay so I'll start teaching you the theory, then we will start on the practical side as soon as you have recovered."

"Okay!" she answered hugging him tightly making him flush in embarrassment.

" _She sure is grateful for my help..._ "

" ** _Oh for fuck sake! He is hopeless in matters of Heart!_ "** Kurama thought sighing in defeat.

With that small encounter, another tassel of what one day will be a tale worthy of legends had been set in place, soon Naruto will discover that his rebirth as a Goblin was not mere chance, but the sign that his abilities were still needed in a World in desperate need of Peace.

 **Omake – Deleted Skill Absorption Scene -**

[ _Skill_ _ **'**_ _ **Blood Suction**_ _ **'**_ _Learned!_ ]

[ _Skill_ _ **'**_ _ **Soul Devouring**_ _ **'**_ _Learned!_ ]

[ _Skill_ _ **'**_ _ **Life Destroying Touch**_ _ **'**_ _Learned!_ ]

[ _Skill_ _ **'**_ _ **Merciless Pursuit**_ _ **'**_ _Learned!_ ]

[ _Skill_ _ **'**_ _ **Endless Greed**_ _ **'**_ _Learned!_ ]

[ _Skill..._

"...Wow! Lawyers are a bunch of bastards here as well." Naruto muttered grimacing as he looked at the dead human man under him dressed in a expensive business suit still clutching his briefcase to his chest.

" **Yep!"** Kurama answered surprised as always nastier Skills kept popping-up.

 **End of the Omake.**

 **Okay, mean jab at Lawyers aside, this is the first chapter done. It sucks? Yeah, I too think it does.  
**

 **I don't actually have high hopes about this one, but I was inspired after getting into a binge of reading Light Novels about Main Characters getting transported in lands following Games Rules. (If you have some new one to read please suggest me, I like reading that kind of stories).  
**

 ** **As always,** I am open to suggestions for this story if they are presented in a manner befitting the civilized parts of Human Society instead of the Animal Kingdom.**

 **Tr230.**


	2. Chapter 2

**_I have a Poll for the Third Girl in my Profile_ that will remain _Open_ until the third chapter of this story is  posted, then I will start to ( _Hopefully_ _slowly_ ) work the story towards said pairing choices. **

**Now, in order to make everybody happy and at the same time angry: Here we will have both ' _Styles'_ of knights being used: meaning that _Samurai_ and " _Knights_ " and their respective _gear_ will be around at the same time.**

 **Why?**

 **I like both that's why.** **I am still the Author of this story XD.**

 **N** **ext Chapter there will be a self-inflicted "Appraisal" of Naruto so you'll see what abilities he has at the moment and their Level, and in order to make story advancement a little bit faster he will soon evolve to Hobgoblin, but do not expect him to hit "** _ **Ogre"**_ **any time soon instead.**

 **P** **airing:** **Naru/** **Mi (From** _ **Re: Monster**_ **) / Albedo (from** _ **Overlord)**_ **and third (AND LAST): '** _ **Readers Choice**_ _ **'**_ _ **.**_

 **I** **changed Albedo's back-story to fit my** **fanfic** **. Like that, just because** _ **I can**_ **.**

" **You bastard"** \- demon talking / jutsu

"Let's finish this" - dialogue

" _Can it get any worse?_ " - during flashback/thoughts

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or whatever I will use here in this fic.**

 **A certain blond in an RPG World Chap 2: World building is useful and all, but just like it's a pain to read, it is also a pain to write, but an Author has to do this or you others won't understand everything.**

 **Woods – Nameless mountain – ( _Naruto's mental note_ _: Find someone to tell me where I was reborn)_**

It was a warm morning in the woods, birds were singing happily, small critters were coming and going as they pleased and few horned rabbits were happily munching on grass and mushrooms or playing around/ chasing their mates in a perfect picture of peace.

 _Thunk! Fiiii...TCHAK!_

 _Kiiiii!_ One of the horned rabbits screamed as an arrow pierced its body from a side to the other.

"AH!" a male voice said as a young goblin jumped down from a near tree to slam his club on the beast's head cracking it open and killing it instantly.

"Got one!" Naruto said happily while giving the thumbs-up to his hidden hunt partner.

 _Kiiii!_ of the six or so rabbits standing around only another decided to stay instead of running away and was now glaring in clear hate at the former shinobi.

"Want a piece of me? Then come and get a bite!"

 _TCHAK!_ The short charge of the animal died abruptly when a newarrow caught its front paw making it stumble forward once lost its balance.

"Good shot, Mi-chan! Like this we have enough meat for two." Naruto said with an evil glint in his eyes that made the Horned Rabbit gulp loudly.

 _THUMP! CRACK!_

"See? See? I got them! I got them!" the female goblin accompanying Naruto (Technically called _Goblin Mi,_ but renamed _Mi_ on the girl's consent) said excited as she too jumped down from a tree to ran at his side.

"Yep! Bows suits you just fine, you are awesome, Mi-chan!" the former shinobi answered with a wide smile while shouldering the still blood-drenched club.

"You are cool too." she answered shyly.

Naruto had decided to momentarily halt is mission of world exploration to help Mi slowly become able to fend for herself and fight, but after few weeks he had grow attached and fond of her, and by the _**HEAVY**_ hints the goblin girl had decided to drop with the same subtly tact of Madara's Meteor jutsu, she too was fond of him.

To Kurama's despair though the full acknowledgment of it being _ROMANTIC_ attachment instead of a sisterly one was still not 100% clear, but the reborn shinobi seemed really close at getting it now, finally.

Mi was weak (at the moment) physically speaking, but once introduced to bows and arrows thanks to the small amount of knowledge the former blond had gained eating she had developed a frightening accuracy that paired with her natural nimble movements, agility and light frame, made her almost the perfect long-range support.

Thus, the two divided their ' _job'_ like this: Naruto was the heavy-hitter, front-line fighter while Mi was the Support hitting from afar with the arrows.

At the moment, after this last hunt of Horned Rabbits, Naruto finally reached Level 99 while Mi reached Level 89...And it had been a pain waiting for her to catch-up, but the answer to his prayers about ' _Speeding things up_ ' had been the discovery of two things:

One was the discovery of the creatures named ' _Kobolds'_ and their rich Exp value: as Kurama's Skill described them, they were a lesser kind of _Beastkin_ (or Beast-people) that were closer to the beast side of their blood giving them full animal appearance and fur instead of just animal ears and tails (and rarely noses) added to an human body found in more common _Beastkin_ that lived in towns; being shunned by Humans and their own kind for their appearances and the fact that they were just violent, feral beasts walking upright and using weapons and armours forced most of them to live like bandits.

The other was that the _Kobolds_ , contrary to their more Human-looking cousins, were also _**very**_ susceptible to poison-based attacks, making their being killed from afar with poisoned arrows the perfect way for Mi to level-up.

It had been a curious discovery for Naruto to see two of them for the first time: one of them was a canine-looking humanoid creature dressed in tattered and rusty samurai gear, the other a panther-like one wearing a style of armour he had never seen, both scouting around his and Mi's temporary _home_ when the shinobi found them _._

Between being blindsided by a surprise attack that by luck blinded the dog one and the weakness to poison and the pitiful state their weapons and armours were in, the two beastly warriors had given the two Goblins an hard battle but still fell to both club and arrows after a long struggle; making sure both were still alive he dragged the two towards Mi and had let her kill the two making her Level advance of two points instead of one. Discovered that, it was open season on them.

And now, after two LONG months of what in another world would have been called ' _Level Grinding'_ , the girl was close as well at Evolving, and by her excited state she too was happy about it.

"I think it's finally time for us to move on! We have lots of places to visit if we want to travel the world!" Naruto said once both finished eating.

"We are ready? I am a little afraid..." Mi answered sighing.

"If we are together, we can do it." he answered smirking.

Her answer was a determined nod and a new hug before both gathered their equipment in the shinobi's bag to start their new journey to... _Ehm!_...The new journey towards...

"Naruto? Where are we going?" Mi asked confused.

"Eh! I hoped you had some idea where to go. I don't know a thing about this place." the other answered equally unsure.

"Me neither."

" _Where are we?_ " Naruto thought in worry.

" **I don't know. Try making me describe something, like a tree or a rock."**

" _Okay."_ the reborn shinobi answered while touching a near tree

 _ **[**_ _A common_ _Mana_ _tree of Shansara Forest,_ _the leaves are the main ingredient of_ _the_ _[_ _ **common**_ _]_ _ **Mana-restorati**_ _ **on**_ _ **P**_ _ **otion**_ _._ _ **]**_ **...Sorry, I can't tell you more apparently.** " The Biju-turned-Ability answered sheepishly.

" _And what is Shansara Forest?_ " he asked tentatively.

"[ _ **Shansara Forest:**_ _the biggest forest of the country of Trevaria_ _ **]...**_ **Help? I don't know where all this shit is!** " Kurama replied grimacing.

" _And_ _what's_ _Trevaria?_ "

" _ **[Trevaria:**_ _Country of the East and farthest territory from the Capital_ _of Devan Kingdom_ _._ _Smallest country of the Devan Kingdom whose giant forest_ _s and mountains_ _act as border with the rival Kingdom of Nesteria and its own smallest country_ _Af_ _uria._ _Trevaria is u_ _sually considered '_ _ **Neutral Area**_ _' by the two Kingdoms_ _just like Afuria, both used as meeting-point by the respective delegations_ _._ _ **]...**_ **We need a native to explain** **us** **what is what and where everything is."** the former Biju said in defeat.

" _Yeah..._ "

"Naruto? Are you okay?" Mi asked worried at watching her friend spacing-out.

"Uh? Yeah, I was just trying to understand where to go. Let's try to go West!"

"To the West?"

" _Eeehm_!..."

" **To your right.** " Kurama supplied chuckling.

"Yes. That way." the young Goblin said walking towards the appointed direction, hopefully towards the Capital of the place, and where maybe they will find someone open-minded enough to help them understand what world they were in.

 **Meanwhile – Serena City ( _Capital of the Devan Kingdom_ ) – Royal Castle - **

In a warm studio filled by bookcases, an old man with well-kept long silver beard and wearing rich clothes along an ancient-looking silver crown was looking in contempt at an huge man opened in front of him on the massive table he was sitting on.

A loud echoing of steps signalled the arrival of a messenger that once opened the door reverently knelt down towards the lone old man, speaking while holding his head as low as possible the young messenger talked with a tone of pure deference.

"Your Highness, I am deeply sorry to disturb you, but Sir Hugos and Sir Kuroi asked to speak with you, can I give them permission?" the young man asked without rising his head.

"Let those two in, but other than them I don't want to be disturbed." the old man replied while still looking at the map.

"As you wish, your Highness." the servant said rapidly leaving the room to let two other men step inside.

"King Leodas." both said smirking while jokingly giving an overly-exaggerated bow.

"Just shut up, get inside and close the door, you idiots!" the old man replied huffing annoyed.

The two men were just as old as the King himself, Kuroi though contrary to the two still had the same black-coloured hair of his by-now far-away youth while Hugos was, sadly, completely bald and sporting the same long beard as the King.

Kuroi was a man from " _The moon islands_ " and was wearing a rich kimono with the dragon insignia of the Devan royal family while Hugos was still in his on-duty medieval-style knight armour with the heavy, hexagonal helmet held securely under one arm and his shield strapped to his back.

"What's the situation, Hugos?" the King asked tiredly.

"Still the same, me and the other guards just finished _'cleaning'_ the surrounding area of monsters, they are still low in Level luckily, but the numbers are increasing." Hugos, Captain of the Royal Guards, answered sighing.

"And you, Kuroi?"

"Politics, always and only politics...My _wonderful_ colleagues wouldn't be able to talk their way out of a bag made of wet paper, but they are still in power. It speaks volumes of their own Kings' intelligence if _THOSE_ are their kingdoms' representatives. Talking with them through the _**Consulting Mirror**_ is a challenge in itself, every day more I wish to wrap my hands around their neck to strangle them until they grow some damn insight." Kuroi answered in defeat as he collapsed on a near chair to rub his temples.

"Completely different from when WE where the Heroes, eh? My dear _Pyromancer_?" King Leodas said snorting.

"I had way less troubles, yes...And Hugos had WAY more hair on his head back in the days." the Devan diplomat answered smirking.

"I have lost mine dealing with your being an annoying stuck-up brat! That's what happened!" Hugos answered growling.

"My friends, we are no longer young hot-heads, please act like adults." the King answered with a barely-suppressed smirk.

"HE STARTED IT!" both men yelled while pointing at each other.

"This reminds me. Guess what?" Kuroi said chuckling.

"What?" Leodas asked back confused.

"Whatever it is causing the monsters to grow in number...Might also be the reason why we have a new Hero rising." the diplomat answered.

"A new Hero?"

"Aaah! Yes, I too heard the rumours. A boy from the farms in Serovia has been born with that [ _ **Title**_ ] instead of gaining it, just like what happened with you...You know what it means." Hugos answered smirking.

"A Quest to save the reign or even the world as a whole...Again. Just like when we were young." the King replied sighing.

"Good times."

"This one seems different though." Kuroi added thoughtful.

"Not a traumatic past...Please tell me he has not a painful, traumatic past! Dealing with both Dalek and Suzuhara in our own Quest as Heroes has been enough _Angst_ for me to last this whole Life-time!" the old man pleaded whining.

" _Ugh!_ Don't remind me of those two! Never thought that a _Sun_ _Cleric (Dalek)_ and a _Moon Warlord_ ( _Suzuhara_ ) could go on and on and on like that when talking about their desire of Justice and Revenge...Just because we needed them to defeat Demon King Asgaron it didn't make them less annoying." Hugos answered with a scrunched-up face as he recalled those particular bad memories.

"Good thing I have sent them to the Frozen Islands in the far north to keep track of the demon penguins mating habits as soon as I inherited the throne of Devan and title of _**[King]**_ from my father." the old King replied.

 **Meanwhile – Frozen Islands (A Cheap North Pole rip-off) -**

"What are they doing?" an heavily dressed monk asked with furred brows as he challenged the perpetual snow-storm rattling the island to join his partner.

"Fucking again." a knight answered while lowering his binoculars, his perpetual angsty frown still unwavering no matter the snot-made icicles hanging from his nose.

"This mission is not helping my mind forget the pain of my father's death, my loneliness and sorrow are still clouding my soul even after avenging his death. Everything is just a pale shadow of its former self trapped in shades of grey and unhappiness." the monk said while both moved back towards their home.

"Me too, no-one can understand the darkness inside my heart that had obscured my life ever since my mother died for that mysterious and incurable illness. It's a regretful pain that never ends." the other replied in angst.

 _Angst! Angst! Angst!_ ( _A/N_ : Anime-style purplish aura and ' _floating'_ kanji around it).

At that a new dark aura of _Emoish Brooding_ covered the small igloo the two lived-in and the surrounding area making the two mating demon penguins sweat-drop.

" _Way to kill the mood!_ " the two creatures thought sighing.

 **Back to the Royal Castle -**

"Thousands of kilometers away and I think they are still too close...But no, this one doesn't seem to be an angst-filled Avenger, fortunately." Kuroi said with a sigh and a placating gesture.

"But he is already moving to build his Party to save the Kingdom."

"Not to sound picky...But to my knowledge we have not an Evil Demon King threatening us at the moment...Why is he building a Party then?" Hugos asked confused.

"Yes, I wasn't aware we needed an Hero Party." King Leodas added nodding.

"My best guess is that his Village, a VERY small one mind you, hopes that by sending here the ' _Destined Hero'_ they will gain your favour should the need arise for him to help us." the diplomat answered shrugging.

"Kuroi...You are a smart man, a very, very smart man and I trust your judgement implicitly...Do we REALLY need this boy? I am not wedding my daughter to him just because he is THE HERO, you know? In fact, I am NOT Wedding my daughter to him. Period." the old man asked annoyed.

"You did marry the Princess back there though as soon as we completed our Mission, King Hypocrite...I mean, Leodas." the Guard Captain said smirking.

"THAT WAS DIFFERENT!" the King shrieked childishly.

"We have put our life at risk together to kill the Demon King and turning his Demon Army to dust as a result along peeing on the smoking ruins of his Cursed Castle afterwards! I did not just march to her father's Palace and got married straight away!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

"IT'S DIFFERENT, HUGOS!"

"It isn't."

"IT IS!"

"BY THE WAY!" Kuroi said rising his voice making the other two men blush and fall silent.

"The fact remains that the number of monsters is drastically increasing along tougher variants finally making their appearances, so having an Hero at hand may not be a bad thing. But I fear that this time is not a Demon King the cause of this; I think King Joseph might be behind this increase of monsters."

"King Joseph?" Leodas asked.

"He never abandoned his quest to have his kingdom usurp Devan, Nesteria or Rao-al-Talhim of being one of the ' _Three Great_ _Crowns_ _'_ that rule our continent. My spies informed me that even before the monster attacks started increasing Joseph has been very busy contacting the people of the Moon Islands, and while the contents of their letters are still unknown to me, they still seem to be joining forces and equipment as for some reason _Clerics, Hunters,_ _Monster Tamers_ and _Dragon-Knights_ coming from the _Moon Islands_ are scouting everywhere following the orders of men from Barad-Se Kingdom."

"The King of a sub-par, underground shit-hole with barely a castle worth this name wants to take our place, _Pfeh!_ Wild dreams of a spoiled brat!" Hugos answered in disgust.

"That may be true, to an extend, but you need to remember that he has deep links with the Elvish Tribes! the biggest colony of Elves is in fact not too far away from Joseph's own Capital city; those people still have their ancient knowledge and potent artefacts to help that man in his mysterious plans, putting those two together is not strange that monsters are going in a frenzy and multiplying without control." Kuroi answered.

"And their holding grudge against every other race that is not Elvish? That too is not helping your picture being bright." the knight added muttering.

"I am surprised you are taking the news of your homeland moving against us this well instead, Kuroi...Are you okay?" Leodas said sadly.

"I was exiled because I preferred studying our forgotten Magic to taking the path of the Samurai, they deemed my studies of our ancient Esoteric Arts too dangerous and kicked me out of my country. There is no Love lost for a country when even your family cast you away as an Heretic." the other replied helpless.

 _Sigh!_ "What about the Dwarves? If Joseph really managed to wake-up a wasps-nest and double the number of monsters as a result it means that he is really up to something not good, and the Dwarven underground Mining Cities would be the first to suffer from it."

"That is the Core of the problem. I have been contacted by their Leader Tohrin Grand-hammer to seek a collaboration between our races, and if their own intelligence is true: Joseph, the Elves and the Moon Islands are working together to target the fabled _Sleeping Titans_." Kuroi answered grimacing.

"The Sleeping Tiutans? You mean...the ones guarding..." a very pale Hugos asked faintly.

"Exactly them: The _'Holy Guardians of Elrune_ ' and the ones holding our world together through their dreams and endless sleep. And apparently those men might have found some way to find where they are having their eternal slumber to disturb, or worse case scenario, kill them for a reason or another."

"Then we have to move immediately! Kuroi!"

"Yes!"

"Go speak with the Dwarves, we will accept their help and finally sign our alliance with them. Then contact your spies and have them follow every trace left behind by those people, nothing must escape your eyes!"

"I'll go immediately!" Kuroi answered bolting out of the room.

"Hugos!"

"I am here!"

"Have the soldiers double their rounds and speed-up the Recruits' training, have squads protect the entrances and inform the other contingents around Devan to be on high alert! We must be informed instantly about every insurgence or problem arising so to act accordingly!" the old King ordered.

"I'll take care of it, and at their first misstep, we'll march there to stop them!" Hugos answered nodding, wearing his helmet back and rapidly leaving the room slamming the door closed.

"Just in case I will also point this ' _Hero'_ towards Joseph so to keep him occupied...But this may still need an extra help though...A third Party no-one would suspects about." Leodas muttered sighing as he waited for the noise of the two men's step to die down, once done that he closed the doors with the key and neared a window to open it and raise his hand outside until the sun reflected on the dark ruby ring he was wearing to generate a faint light.

Barely few seconds later and a crow twice bigger than normal appeared in the horizon to rapidly fly inside the room to land on one of the chairs.

"Sorry the abrupt call, my friend. But I need a favour, so please help me." King Leodas said apologetically as he rapidly closed the window and threw the curtains closed on that as well on the others.

"I need help as well, Leodas." the crow replied as it exploded into a thick cloud of black miasma soon condensing into a towering skeletal being covered in an elaborate jet-black academic gown adorned with gold and violet edges, He had a dark red glow inside the empty eye sockets and a dark halo-like object glimmered behind his head.

"What happened, Ainz?" The old King asked.

In answer the Living Skeleton did what was literally impossible and had his eyes grow huge and start shooting out streams of tears at an almost comical quantity while shaking Leodas wildly.

"ALBEDO RAN AWAY! _AGAIN!_ " Ainz Ooal Gown, the TRUE Demon King, yelled while crying his eyes out.

"Albedo? Your daughter?" the King asked confused.

"No, my goldfish...OF COURSE I MEAN MY DAUGHTER, YOU OLD FART!" the skeletal man roared in answer.

"I told you you were pampering her too much! But you didn't listen!" Leodas answered shoving away the Demon King's hands.

"It's all her mother's fault! I always told her ' _Momonga, maybe we should reign little Albedo a bit more!'_ and she always answered that as a Part-Succubus she would always have been a free spirit no matter what!" Ainz answered before collapsing on a chair in defeat.

Aaah, yes! Momonga the Succubus Queen...Leodas remembered her _OH SO WELL!_ He was a righteous man that loved his wife dearly down to his very soul...but even he (past Hero and Chosen One) had once or twice had "Certain Dreams" about the woman whose smouldering beauty and generous curves had occupied the dirty dreams of pretty much whoever had met her even just once, and that even without switching-on her Kind's [ _ **Succubus Lust Aura**_ _]._

 **Back in the days – when King Leodas was just 'Hero Leodas' -**

When the King was still a young Hero on the road to defeat the Demon King, he and his Party had stopped in the last city before entering the Demon Lord's domain to have a deep rest and restock supplies for the Final Battle, that very same night he had heard a young girl cry under the window of his room at the local Inn and had decided to investigate.

Unable to stop worrying he went out alone only to find a petite girl, that he believed to be a ten-year-old human, cry in fear and calling for her daddy to save her; so being the good boy he was, Leodas had neared the girl to try and console her only to see two very small black-feathered wings sprouting from her waist, two stumps of barely-formed horns on her forehead and her eyes holding golden irises with vertical slit pupils.

At that followed a deep growl of fury that had the Hero turn around so to be face-to-face with the Demon King in person; grabbing his sword with both hands Leodas had immediately charged Ainz only for him to side-step the Hero without a second thought and hurry to hug the girl that immediately hugged him back to cry even harder.

Of all things Leodas thought would have happened, seeing the fearsome Dark Lord in person start baby-talk and tickle the girl making her giggle was by far the strangest one, along making him pout at being ignored, before an angelic voice called the trio attention towards herself.

" _There you are!_ " the woman had said jokingly.

" _MOMMY!"_ Little Albedo had cried-out happily in answer.

" _Momm-GUH!_ " the Young Hero barely said before his bulged-out eyes locked on the Succubus Queen's bust.

Her heavenly-soft-looking bust gleaming under the moonlight thanks to the thin layer sweat probably coming from her rushing there.

Her huge, perky, bountiful and creamy bust that was barely covered by a skin-tight dress with a criminally-big cleavage strained to its limits in the chest area leaving nothing to the imagination. (To this day King Leodas was ashamed to admit that he still didn't know what her face was like. He was a youngster, cut him some slack!).

" _I wanna bury my face_ _between them_ _..."_ the old King remembered being all he could think about in that situation.

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT, PERVERT!" Ainz had screeched in fury.

" _Boobies!...I-I-I mean, Who are you!?_ " the Hero said as while with one hand he was pointing his sword at the Demon King, with the other he was desperately trying to cover the front of his pants that without armour were clearly tenting from the previous show.

What followed had been, if anything, surreal to say the least: apparently Ainz' right-hand man Asgaron had been pressing towards the annihilation of the other races to ' _Make Room'_ for the Demons inhabiting the Forbidden Mountains and expand their territory; and since the Demon Lord didn't want to bring on himself and his people the anger of races that ALREADY saw them as monsters and were just waiting for a good-enough excuse to attack and exterminate them, he vehemently refused.

The result had been Ainz being forced to pack his stuff and take his wife, daughter and a dozen monsters still loyal to him and leave for the ' _Holiday Resort'_ he had built for his family (That was a ' _Suicide/Impossible-Level'_ Dungeon he had named _Nazar-something_ or other) as he refused to destroy his former followers even after their betrayal; making of Asgaron the effective Leader behind the monsters attack towards the humans.

So a secret deal was made between Hero and Demon King: in exchange of Ainz' help in infiltrating the Cursed Castle, Leodas would have destroyed Asgaron making everyone believe the Demon Lord was dead so that Ainz, his family and his loyal servants could live in peace in the mountains without people bothering them.

It was a pity that Asgaron, in his Quest to become a _TRUE_ Demon King, had bond his life to the Castle and the monsters following his orders so to increase his powers; at his death everything, Castle and Army alike, just crumbled to dust making the lie covering Ainz even more believable so to let him retire in peace and anonymity.

" _It's okay,_ _I had been forced to become a Demon King_ _after Evolving_ _, so I am happy to retire. The Castle?_ _I never liked that_ _place_ _anyway!_ _I_ _t was too humid, you have no idea how much my bones used to hurt every morning._ " was the only comment the skeleton made while shrugging.

So now, years later, Leodas had become King once married the Princess of Devan's allied country and had stuck a curious bond of friendship with the former Demon King only he knew was the _REAL ONE_ , so much that in secret their respective daughters were best friends and each of them had played baby-sitter for the other whenever one of the two could not keep his daughter around.

Although...How a skeleton completely devoid of flesh and muscles could conceive a daughter with a Succubus still escaped the King, last time he tried to work-out the details the resulting headache had lasted for a full week.

 **Back in the present -**

"You are still thinking about my wife's boobs." Ainz accused with a narrowing of his luminous eyes.

"It's not my fault! I am only human!" the old King admitted ashamed as he too collapsed on his chair.

" _Tche_! I came here to ask for help and you repair me like this! By lusting about my woman!"

"That is not true. But listen, King Joseph is gaining help from Elves and the _Moon Islands_ to hunt-down the Colossus Guardians. I need your help."

"Even I steer clear from them, this is a very bad news...Okay, I'll help you! I'll have my demon spies keep their eyes open and inform you secretly. But in exchange you need to help me find Albedo, that girl can't just go around without an escort, it's too dangerous!" Ainz answered.

"She will be fine, you and Momonga trained her personally, I don't think there is anyone able to defeat her once she starts fighting."

"I would love to see YOU in my place! Would you be so calm should your daughter escape?! I may still hold the [ _ **Demon King**_ ] Title, but it never meant _EVERY_ monster or Demon of this planet is under my command! Otherwise I wouldn't be so worried!" Ainz asked with a glare.

"But I have not this problem! My sweet, innocent daughter would _NEVER_ do such a thing and break her poor Daddy's heart!" King Leodas answered smugly.

"Damn lucky bastard."

"YOUR HIGHNESS! YOUR HIGHNESS!" a servant screamed while battering on the door with her fist.

Waiting for Ainz to return into being a crow the old man opened the door to see a distraught maid.

"What happened?" he asked annoyed.

"The princess escaped!"

"GUH?!" in the back of the room the King could clearly hear the crow _Kaw-_ ing in a very laughing-like way as Ainz laughed in revenge at his friend's misfortune.

"HOW IT HAPPENED!?" he asked shrieking.

"We don't know! We just found this letter on her bed and most of her belongings gone!" the maid answered handing to the old man the letter she was clutching to her chest.

"YOU MUST FIND HER! FIND HEEEEEEEER!" he bellowed making the poor woman run away scared and the whole castle tremble.

 _Kaw-Kaw-Kaw! Kaaaw-Kaw-Kaw-Kaw!_ The crow in the meantime had collapsed because of its laughter.

"...This is not funny, Ainz." the King said slamming the door closed.

"It is for me! Share the anguish, brother! It will burn less!" the living Skeleton answered smirking once transformed back.

"I would not laugh if I were you, apparently both our daughters planned this."

"Eh?"

"They decided to go incognito and live an adventure together." the King said waving the short letter the maid gave him.

"It's okay then, each one will keep the other in line, and like this they will be easier to find either by my spies or your men." Ainz answered calmly.

"And what if they...they..."

"Do _**NOT**_ say it!" Ainz warned with a growl.

"What if they meet... _Boys_." Leodas said in disgust.

" _ARGH_! My Albedo is too young for that!" the Demon King growled in answer.

"Don't worry, as you said, they will protect each other. My girl or yours will scare every boy that will try court them." King Leodas answered waving the other off.

"...Unless they have feelings for the same guy, that could easily end-up with the two joining forces to snatch him. But we can't know exactly how that would develop either." Ainz muttered darkly.

"It's still highly unlikely, though."

"True, true. But SHOULD it happen...I call dibs on skinning him alive!" the Demon King hissed.

"Then I'll personally choke the bastard with his own spine!"

"Decapitation!"

"Neutering!"

"Immolation!"

"WE'LL SHOVE AN HAND UP HIS ASS TO PULL HIM INSIDE-OUT!" both fathers yelled at the same time with blazing eyes.

 **Meanwhile – with Naruto and Mi – Entrance of Shansara Forest -**

"AAACHOOOO!"

"Bless you, Naruto!" Mi said laughing as the transformed shinobi kept trying to sneeze-out his own lungs again and again.

"Thank you. Now...This road should connect to various Villages...And hopefully, to the Capital...I think." he said uncertain.

"GOBLINS!" an human voice yelled in surprise.

"Eh?" the Goblin girl said confused.

"Oh! Hello!" Naruto replied waving at the small convoy joining them from a parallel path, it was a duo of merchant carriages closely followed by ten armed soldiers either on foot or riding horses.

"You...You speak the human language?" The red-haired female soldier guiding the second carriage asked unsure.

"Yes, some of us can. Why? I shouldn't be able to?" Naruto asked back faking annoyance while acting as interpreter for Mi at the same time.

" **You have** **just** **eaten Humans** **t** **o re-learn the Language, but telling them** _ **that**_ **would be bad.** " Kurama added.

"Well, I thought...We believed that..."

"Aren't you Goblins supposed to be idiots? Retards?" another man asked sneering.

"That is very insulting and rude, you know? I didn't comment on your wearing dirty smelly clothes and you call me an idiot instead? _Hn!_ You are a bastard without manners." the former shinobi said huffing haughtily.

"HEY!"

"Let's go, Mi-chan! Those are bullies, just ignore them."

" _Bleeeeh!_ " Mi answered by sticking-out her tongue at the human group before following her friend.

"BULLIES?!"

"W-W-W-WAIT! Aren't you...Supposed to attack us? And kidnap me and the other girls for breeding?" the red-haired soldier asked unsure making the other girls flinch at the idea.

"WHAT?! PERVERT!" Naruto yelled in horror while laughing deep inside his heart at their flabbergasted expression.

"P-PERVERT?! YOU MEAN US?!" another female soldier said in disbelief.

"Yeah! You all see a Goblin and immediately start having porn fantasies! Don't come closer, you sexual deviant!" he answered making a show of covering his groin just like Mi was covering her breasts and hiding behind him.

"We are not...We didn't mean to...I mean...I-I-I HAVE NOT DIRTY FANTASIES ABOUT GOBLINS!" the redhead said blushing like mad.

"But you have to admit it, that was the first thing you thought about after seeing them." an old man from the carriage said chuckling.

"That is not true!" she answered whining.

"Sure as the sky is blue...You two are the strangest pair of Goblins I have ever seen." the oldest soldier of the group said lowering his weapon.

"Can we trust them?" another man, dressed in a samurai armour and holding a bow, asked while still pointing his arrow at Naruto.

"You harassed ME and I am the threat? Who says that you others won't try anything with me? Or for the men of your group won't try to force themselves on Mi-chan?" Naruto answered crossing his arms.

"I AM MARRIED! I HAVE CHILDREN WAITING FOR ME BACK HOME!" the bow-user yelled in rage.

"This never stopped others from trying to have an affair." the shinobi answered bitterly.

" _ARGH_! Can I kill him? Please?"

"Stuff it, Shin! What do you want, Goblin?" the Leader of the convoy, an old-looking Dwarf, asked careful.

"Naruto, my name is Naruto and this is Mi." the other answered with narrowed eyes.

"Nice to meet you then, I am Olaf Strong-arm."

"The pleasure is mine, Olaf-san."

"I ask again, what do you want from us?" the dwarf asked with a more polite tone of voice.

"Help, that's all."

"Help?" another adventurer asked in confusion.

"You may think we are all the same, but I happen to have a wish. And I need help to fulfill it." Naruto answered.

"And what would that dream be?" Olaf asked honestly curious.

"Don't laugh...But I want to be the strongest Mercenary ever...I can't be an Hero since I am a Goblin, so I am happy to reach the closest thing possible to it. For this reason I decided to travel the world and become the strongest and most famous." the transformed shinobi answered blushing.

"What!? BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Oooh! That's a first! I travelled these lands for dozens of years, and yet I still find things able to surprise me! You do know that it would mean not attacking your client, right?" Olaf answered after a long laugh.

"Of course! What do you think I am? An Idiot?"

"Compared to normal Goblins? No, you certainly aren't one." the same bow-user from before (Shin) admitted finally putting down the bow.

"So, what do you need?" the red-haired girl asked.

"Pretty much? Everything. I only know what my forest looks like and how to hunt...I don't think that would be enough to be a Mercenary." Naruto admitted smiling.

"Nope! That is really lacking in knowledge, my boy!" Olaf said shaking his head and moving closer to the duo.

"But I can see it in your eyes, you are being honest." he then said.

"You sure we can trust him?" another girl adventurer asked.

"We still have not been ambushed, he and his friend have not attacked us and he has been polite. I am fairly open to trust my judgement and believe him; just like there are bad humans, bad elves and bad Dwarves...I think that out there there can be good Goblins." Olaf answered.

"Thank you, Olaf-san." Naruto said bowing a little, Mi behind him clumsily doing the same.

"Huhuhu! You convinced that girl to join you in this little dream of yours, eh? Another good Goblin, this most be our lucky day! Come, in exchange of you two helping us protecting the men and women AND the stuff in the carriages, we will teach you what you need to know...And some extra lessons for Miss Mi in human Language so you won't always have to play translator."

" _T-Hanb_ _k_ _dou_." Mi said once Naruto tried suggesting her.

"Almost there, little girl, but it's a good start." the dwarf answered laughing making her smile.

"You know? Those two look cute together." a civilian girl said sneaking a peak at the Goblin couple.

"Girls...They find everything cute." a young kid muttered rolling his eyes.

"So! We are close to a perfect place to mount our camp for the night, if you have to earn your ' _Lessons'_ you better start helping soon, eh?" Olaf said rubbing his hands together.

"I think so, Mi?"

"If you think we can trust them." the girl replied shrugging.

"I'll protect you, don't worry."

"Thank you."

What followed was a fast, fervent coming and going of people preparing stacks of wood for the fire, mounds of hay for the warriors to sleep outside for the turns in guarding and youngsters and women preparing food for everybody using the reserves they had with them.

"HOY! Can humans eat Horned Rabbits, Ruby Vipers and fishes?" Naruto asked as he and Mi joined with said prey once returning from the near woods.

"Technically yes...Thea?" Olaf asked.

" _ **[Analize]**_...It's okay, we can eat those." a girl with pale skin and ruby eyes intoned waving a long, decorated staff to form a circle of light in front of herself and making the food the two Gobling brought light-up for an instant.

" _ **[Analize:**_ _minor appraisal ability that can be learned by High-Level Cleric and Sage classes, it shows limited information about the target,_ _elemental weaknesses_ _comprised. Can be used to detect poison and curses on objects and food.]_ _ **Still nothing compared to what**_ _ **I**_ _ **can do, though.**_ _"_ Kurama said smugly.

"You checked if I poisoned the food, by chance?" Naruto asked offended.

"Just to reassure everyone else, sorry." Olaf answered rising both hands in a peaceful manner.

" _Tch_! Meanie." the shinobi muttered huffing while both Goblin sat around the camp-fire.

"Well-done?" the ' _Chef'_ of the group asked smirking.

"Rare, thank you." he answered laughing.

"Okay, since we are all here, Let's start with the basics. I am Dhoran ' _The Explorer',_ I travel with Olaf to perfect my studies of this world and its different kinds of Magic. Are you ready for the lessons?" a scholar-looking old man said sitting in front of Naruto.

"Whenever you want!"

Said this a worn-out book was opened in front of the two Goblin showing a complex map of a planet and its two moons.

"Good. The world we live in is called Elrune and is divided in two main continents and an archipelago: Dolvis, where we are now, is the biggest; followed by Melvis, the smallest one on the left while that on the right is the Halvis Archipelago: an huge cluster of hundreds of small islands also called _Moon Islands_. The strange armour our friend Shin wears comes from there as he is a native of those islands, even if that gear in origin could be found only there, nowadays Lunar Gear has spread far and wide even in the other two continents."

" **It's a samurai armour, why** **do** **they say it's strange?** " Kurama asked.

" _Different culture,_ _maybe_ _._ " Naruto answered.

"All clear?" the scholar asked.

"Up until now, yes, Dhoran-san."

"You keep using Lunar honorific, most curious. By the way, we are moving towards the Capital of the Devan Kingdom named Serena City; it's the place where the King of Devan resides." Dhoran said moving a finger on the map to point at said city.

"And what is Devan?" Mi asked, question translated by Naruto.

"Devan, along Nesteria and Rao-al-Talhim are the biggest kingdoms of our continent and are also called the ' _Three Great_ _Crowns_ _'_ : those three super-powers keep this land in balance by keeping track of the minor kingdoms in their respective area of influence and stopping them and each other when needed: Devan to the West, Nesteria to the East and Rao-al-Talhim to the South."

" **Like the Big Five back home: Konoha, Suna, Iwa, Kumo and Kiri were the ones keeping the smaller Villages** **and each others** **in check by being the strongest ones.** " Kurama commented.

"And what about the North?" Naruto asked.

"In our case the North is a cold land covered in mountains where once stood the Demon King Kingdom, now monsters are without a Lord and still roam the streets to their leisure and very small human settlements can be found albeit few in number. Nesteria itself is not better as internal strife for power make people there restless and travels harder than what they should, several small territories keep arguing about Nesteria being considered the third _Crown_ instead of them."

"So we'll need to go to Devan to become mercenaries?"

"That would be your best option, but in your specific case I suggest you to join a Guild instead." the red-haired girl suggested.

"A Guild?" Mi asked.

"A Guild is basically a group of warriors working together to take missions issued by the Guild Association, those being also regulated by the Royal Family itself so you won't have to fear clients skipping the payment once you have done." Olaf explained.

"And it would also make things easier for you two if you are officially registered in a Guild, since Goblins are still not exactly trusted being registered will show people you won't be a threat but that you can be approached for completing their Missions." the scholar added.

"...But they will still be wary of us." Naruto added sighing.

"That can't be helped. Now go to sleep, tomorrow we will continue our Lesson and start teaching Miss Mi human Language basics." Olaf suggested.

"Okay, old man!" Naruto replied smiling.

That night the transformed shinobi was just lying down unable to sleep, partly because Mi decided to use his whole body as an hugging pillow, and just stood there looking upward towards the twin moons and their pale light.

" **[** _ **The twin Moons of Elrune:**_ _Palom and Polom. The legend says that they contain the souls of the two children of the Goddess Elrune that created the world, since the two kids were not immortal like her at their death she created the two moons to contain their spirits so that her children could still play Tag like they did in their youth_ _and_ _endlessly chas_ _e_ _each other in the sky._ **]** " Kurama explained.

"At least they are having fun even now." Naruto muttered smiling as he finally felt his eyelids drop and sleep overcome him.

 **Dream Realm -**

As soon as he had fell asleep Naruto found himself floating in a bottomless void of pure darkness, unable to tell where left and right or up and down even where, not feeling cold or warm but just floating aimlessly in that pitch-black pit.

"Where am I?" the young man asked aloud.

" **Aaah! Yes! We finally meet** **at last** **!"** a deep, thunderous voice said elated with a tone rumbling like hundreds of storms.

"Who are you?"

" **Huhuhu! It is still soon for proper introductions, but** **still,** **I am here to ask you** **to help me** **all the same** **.** " the voice said as a giant black silhouette with shining red eyes moved in the darkness to come closer while still remaining impossible to discern from the background.

"Help you? How?" Naruto asked confused.

" **We have been forced to call you here because in deep need of your abilities...** **Your world is safe as while unable to act directly here** **without waking-up,** **we could** **still** **dispel the Illusion trapping your people** **in your world.** **B** **ut we still need your help** **as we can't do a thing** **HERE** **in Elrune personally** **, so we had** **to get** **you here** **through rebirth** **."**

"Ookay. Help in doing what, exactly?" the shinobi asked with narrowed eyes.

" **Huhuhu! Nothing too grievous, I just need you to eat this gem,** **there is an evil man hunting** **this and others similar** **down and** **we just** **don't want** **our** **treasure to be stolen by the first passing by** **.** **That's all.** " the Figure said moving what seemed to be a giant hand to its chest to retrieve an apple-sized ruby cut in thousands of facets.

"...That's it?" he asked unconvinced.

" **I expected you to be a tiny bit more open to trust people."**

"..."

" **Please? You won't absorb anything, it will just get** **stored and stay** **hidden inside your heart away from prying eyes.** **It's all about hiding it, no strange missions! I swear!** **It's just that my body stands-out too much to keep it safe!** **"** the voice stammered lamely.

"Hu-uh? And?"

" **...You are a stubborn bastard. What do you want in exchange?"** the Voice grumbled annoyed.

"What are you offering?"

" _Grrr_ _ **!**_ **One of my fangs to be turned into a weapon and a** **n unique** _ **Legendary-Grade**_ **[** _ **Great Blessing]**_ **from a friend of mine: very forbidden Magic and Abilities** **no-one else has** **...Everything also very Badass-looking, Evolutions comprised."** the Entity answered angrily.

"Deal!" Naruto said smirking, taking the offered gem and swallowing it whole making his body let-out a faint red aura soon dissipating.

" **Hn! Good. Now...The painful part...** _ **ARGH**_ **!...Here it is, just look for a blacksmith called** **Andre** **, he will know what weapon to create** **with it** **."** the Voice said in agony as an HUGE fang (twice bigger than Naruto's whole body)landed near the shinobi.

"No swords though, I think I prefer clubs...Maybe it's because I am a Goblin now..."

" **Whatever?"**

 _PING!_

 _ **[You Obtained: Mysterious Divine Fang!** -What is this? Where does it come from? No-one knows, but it's harder than dragons' scales and heavier and denser than the core of a dead star. Only a Master Blacksmith can use this to create a weapon! **Grade: Legendary.]**_

"Whatever. Pleased to make affairs with you, Voice-san!" Naruto said chuckling as the _**[**_ _Bag of Holding_ _ **]**_ he had with him managed to swallow the fang whole and store it without problems.

" **The pleasure is mine..."**

"Who was the other guy you people called here to protect the gems?"

" **It was a man that has reincarnated into a** **Slime,** **h** **e too had accepted a similar request from one of us to keep something safe from the hands of Evil,** **so please** **help us** **, we only want you both to protect the** **objects** **you have been given.** " the Entity said clearly sneering as the dream started fading away.

"Okay! Don't worry, no-one will get the stone you gave me! I got it! I got it!" the shinobi answered annoyed as his body finally disappeared.

" _ **Those two are unknowingly holding the keys to keep our world safe, openly telling them would just give them a too big burden**_ _ **while**_ _ **they earned the chance at a new life...Varudora preferred being completely absorbed by his Champion, but just my Core being stored**_ _ **in**_ _ **side**_ _ **mine**_ _ **will be more than enough...If those two humans manage to not be captured**_ _ **and killed**_ _ **before the Hero completes his Sacred Mission**_ _ **...At least two of us will still be able to keep the Seal working and resurrect the others once Peace returns.**_ " the Entity thought weakly as its being slowly crumbled to dust.

 **Real world – Morning -**

 _ **[Evolution Achieved! You are an**_ _Hobgoblin_ _ **now!]**_ a voice and a small victory jingle rang in Naruto's head waking him up.

"What the?!"

 _PING!_

 _ **[** New Job Gained **: Leaf Shinobi.]**_

"Oh! Well, I already knew I was one, thank you!" he said smirking.

 _PING!_

 _ **[** Gained Legendary Great Blessing **: Divine Blessing of the Supreme God of Chaos]**_

 _ **[Achievement unlocked:** "He who transcended Life, Death and Chaos." **]**_

"So I Evolved into an Hobgoblin? Oooh! COOL!" the shinobi said looking at his hands, now more human looking albeit still with sharp claw-looking nails and at his skin that had turned a very dark shade of dull-silver.

"BWAHAHAHAHA! You evolved then? Good for you!" Olaf said laughing and using the flat side of his battle-ax like a mirror to let Naruto see his face.

"That's! That's my face...More or less." the young man said faintly, his face was pretty much his old human one but with jet-black hair still showing his spiky hairstyle as an human, deep-blue eyes and dull-silver skin, even his whiskers-like marks were still there.

Although, the sharp fangs in his mouth and the two thumb-sized horns on the high front of his forehead were an extra he could have easily been able to live without, that and the fact that the jewel he had on his forehead now had grown in size and shape to look like a third eye.

" _ **That voice is hiding some details, you know?**_ " Kurama said sighing.

" _Yep! I thought so too, th_ _ose_ _stone_ _s_ _must be really important if they went through all the trouble of summoning two people from another world just to keep them safe, so let's just wait and see what happens...But they could_ _have_ _t_ _ook_ _me here as an human_ _at least_ _!"_

" _ **Beggars ain't choosers,**_ _ **we didn't want to die and they made us be reborn,**_ _ **it's too late now to cry**_ _ **.**_ **"**

" _Should we look for that Slime dude?"_

" _ **Probably, even just in the hope he has been told more about this whole gems mess, and if he comes from another world like us, he may like to meet someone that he can relate with.**_ **"** Kurama answered enticing a long sigh from the reincarnated shinobi.

" _Yeah, I think so as well."_

"Happy?" Olaf asked.

"Uh?...If I am happy? Yeah." Naruto answered nodding.

"I bet you are! You even got taller! Although..." the dwarf said smirking.

"Yes? What's wro-"

"KYYYYYAAAAAAAAAH!" the girls of the camp screamed as one before blushing and turning around to not look at him.

"You should cover yourself, you out-grew your loincloth so it broke in pieces." Olaf answered still laughing.

It was then that Naruto looked down to discover his being naked AND sporting a morning wood.

"Oh, God!" he moaned pitifully face-palming.

"What's happening?" Mi asked as she awoke from the ruckus.

"MI! DON'T LOO-"

"KYAAAH!"

 _ **THUD!**_

"...Damn it. _"_ the shinobi barely said before the girl, thanks to her still sitting position, went face-to-face with his ' _club'_ at an inch of her nose for a few seconds before fainting immediately after with a very red face.

"Wear this, a dick is not the first thing I want to see in the morning, Goblin or Human!" one of the men said smirking as he threw a spare change of clothes to Naruto making the others laugh.

"I won't laugh if I were you, Shin! His is way bigger than yours after all! Of a good margin at the very least!" Olaf added making the bow-user grow red-faced in anger and embarrassment.

"SHUT-UP, YOU SHITTY MIDGET!" Shin bellowed in anger making a new round of laughs start.

 **Meanwhile – at the other side of the planet -**

In all that friendly ribbing, nor Naruto or anyone else could know that far and far-away, in the remote Lunar Islands, in a deep underground and well-hidden Temple, a giant statue of a four-armed Monster had just crumbled to dust making the small group of men that had barely entered the Temple grow wide-eyed in shock, unable to understand what had happened under their very eyes.

"This is not good, Varudora and Malvas were the only two we managed to locate and both are lost! Lord Joseph won't be happy to hear about this! We still have not enough knowledge about the location of the other Colossus..." the head of the group said grimacing in horror.

"What happened?" a near soldier asked confused.

"The gems, YOU IDIOT! IT'S ALL ABOUT THE COLOSSUS' CORES! We need those gem-like hearts for our King's plan to succeed! And while that whole Dragon seemingly evaporated from its prison, here just the Core is gone leaving behind an hollow statue for us to find...Someone else must be hunting down the Cores. We must return to Barad-se and alert our King, we may have an information leak, a spy in our ranks! A TRAITOR!" the leader of the soldiers spat in blind fury as he turned around to leave.

"Yes, Sir!" the soldiers answered as one as they too marched outside.

" _Whoever has those gems will pay! No-one can stop our King! NO-ONE!_ "

Unaware of all this happening, both Naruto and Mi kept travelling with the small convoy of merchants while learning both to fight and the Languages of Elrune along everything they might need to know to make their way in this huge world of Magic and Monsters.

 **OOOKAY! Second Chapter done...No Omake this time as the Chapter was already too long** **and surpassed** **the "** _ **5/6k Words Limit"**_ **I had envisioned for my OP Corner series, sorry.**

 **I did say Naruto would have become an Hobgoblin soon...** **At the e** **nding of the second Chapter** _ **IS**_ **soon after all, right? -** _ **chuckles-**_

 **Yes, here Albedo is Ainz' daughter instead of Lover/Stalker/almost-rapist (in a chapter of the Light Novel she literally assaulted him XD) while I used Ainz' original name (** _ **Momonga**_ **) for Albedo's mother.**

 **I didn't want Ainz to die for Naruto to swoop in, I like his character ^ ^.**

 **Thank you so much for reading, please vote in the Poll so I'll be able to decide who the third girl is, as you saw, the name of the King's daughter has never been used, that's who the third girl will be.**

 **BYEEEEE!**

 **Tr230.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I know some of you don't like when I spend time talking about other characters other than Naruto in this story, but I need to introduce King Joseph and the third girl of the pairing along Albedo in this one...And another character that will also be the part of Naruto's guild in the near future. Who she is? Oooh! I want to see if somebody of you recognize her XD.**

 **Here there** **will** **also** **be** **an** **"** _ **Appraisal**_ **" of Naruto so you'll see what abilities he has at the moment and their Leve** **l** **.**

 **To be clear: I "** _ **Estimated**_ **" the Level of Power "End-of-Manga Naruto" has and tried directly translating that into "** _ **RPG**_ _ **Numbers"**_ **and "** _ **Stats"**_ **, and he WILL improve further as the story progresses.**

 **At the moment he has just evolved into a** Hobgoblin **, a Super-rare '** _ **Variation'**_ **of one to be precise.**

 **P** **airing:** **Naru/** **Mi (From** _ **Re: Monster**_ **) / Albedo (from** _ **Overlord)**_ **and third (AND LAST):** _ **Demon Queen Alice (from Monster Girl Quest)**_ **here** _ **"Princess Alice"**_ _ **.**_

 **Sister figures:** Jibril _ **(from no game no life)**_ **and** Mana **(Who is she? But Dark Magician Girl from Yu-gi-oh of course!)** **and...aaand….aaaaand! You Guess: she has purple hair, she is a hero and is only HALF human. Who is she? (A huge tip: she can dance through the danger).**

 **I** **changed** **Demon Queen** **Alice and** **Albedo's back-story to fit my** **fanfic** **. Like that, just because** _ **I can**_ **.**

" **You bastard"** \- demon talking / jutsu

"Let's finish this" - dialogue

" _Can it get any worse?_ " - during flashback/thoughts

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or whatever I will use here in this fic.**

 **A certain blond in an RPG World Chap 3: Joining a Guild is not as easy as it sounds, apparently it requires a minimum number of members and lots of paper-work getting signed in triple and other boring stuff! WHERE IS THE ADVENTURE IN THAT?!**

 **Barad-se Kingdom – Capital city " _Ornelia"_ \- King Joseph Palace's throne Room -**

Not too far away from Nesteria kingdom, hidden in the middle of what the locals call **[** _ **The Elvish Forest**_ ] stood a solitary, imposing mountain; sticking out from the vast sea of green like a sore thumb as if the gods had just dropped a mountain there because they had no other place to put it when they created Elrune.

In truth legends said it was the only mountain remaining in the area as back in the time of myths that forest used to be a giant mountain range before a colossal war leveled the whole area to the ground leaving just that solitary one standing once everything was done.

And in the core of that mountain, that in itself marked the ' _entrance'_ to Ornelia city, stood the underground Capital city of Barad-se Kingdom, out of every other small territory in the East the most vocal about Nesteria being unworthy of the title of ' _Great Crown'_ and even more so since Joseph Thamwel's ascension to the throne at his father's death.

The city of Ornelia was initially created with the idea of it being a huge mining outpost (designed in concentric rings growing _narrower_ the deeper one got underground and with each ring connected by narrow passages) that in the following centuries ' _evolved'_ into a fully autonomous city and then Kingdom once the surrounding tribes of Elves and the newly-named " _King"_ of Ornelia signed an alliance, the first and last one to date between Humans and Elves in all Elrune's history, resulting in the creation of the Kingdom of Barad-se once Ornelia and the surrounding human and elvish territories unified under a single banner.

And now, in the deepest area of that underground city now spamming for more than half the total territory of the forest, stood a sturdy-looking fortress, in truth a small self-sustaining village in itself isolated by the rest of Ornelia thanks to high walls and hosting the Royal Palace, the ' _War College'_ for the Elite Soldiers of Barad-se and the main library of the Capital.

And inside the Royal Palace, in the throne room to be precise, at the moment there was a meeting between King Joseph and the aptly named ' _Imperial War Council'_ ongoing, and the King of Barad-se was clearly FAR from being in a good mood.

"YOU IDIOTS!" Thundered the King slamming his fist on the armrest of his throne making the assembled men and women in front of him wince.

"Do not let those fools ruin your day, husband. They are unworthy of it." the man's wife said calmly from her own throne next to him, she was an elf and had platinum blond hair and very long and pointed ears, as she talked her ice-blue sharp eyes were glaring daggers at those who had angered her beloved making them look down in deference.

"They may not be worthy of it, but their sheer incompetence is something I cannot ignore!" Joseph answered snarling as he got up, walked down the few steps keeping him on a higher ground than his counselors and then slammed the ax he had strapped on his back on the unfolded map covering the giant round table in the middle of the room making his men jump in surprise.

"Malvas' statue lacked the Core and Varudora disappeared without trace...Two cores of the ' _Warring Trinity'_ are gone! HOW COULD YOU FAIL ME!? HOW COULD MY MEN, MEN THAT WE TRAINED WITH THE BEST EQUIPMENT MONEY AND MAGIC COULD AFFORD TO BECOME ELITE, FAILED?! HOW?!" the King asked making the ones around him flinch once again.

"Remember the Elvish Lore: **'** _ **With**_ _ **the Elemental Cores you create the**_ _ **Lock**_ _ **; with the**_ _ **Warring**_ _ **Trinity you create the Key'.**_ Without the cores of the _Lesser_ Titans the ones from Varudora, Malvas and Ifrion are useless...And without the cores of the [ _ **Warring Trinity**_ ] the ones from the [ _ **Elemental Titans**_ ] are just cute pieces of jewelry, we need all of them for the plan to succeed." the Queen added with a cold voice.

"My Lord..." one of the counselors tried saying after swallowing hard to undo the knot in his throat.

"Speak, Major Lehrgen, and make it quick!" Joseph answered growling.

"What we are looking for to create our _**[Final Weapon]**_ was supposed to be only a Myth! A Legend! The fact that we instead managed to track-down the location of the crypts where Malvas and Varudora were sealed in was a miracle in itself...We are still looking for the third member of the Trinity ( _ **Ifrion**_ ), but we need time!" the young man said while nervously adjusting his glasses.

"Then find that beast! Find it and bring its Core to me!"

"Of course, sir!" the man answered nodding frantically.

"This is the very LAST error I will forgive, then I will hung you and your men and replace you. What about our R&D?" Joseph asked while taking huge calming breaths.

"Ah! The core we took from the Elemental Titan of Fire is indeed a specimen worth its legends! If only I had the other four as well to study them!" the old man sitting at the opposite side of Lehrgen answered amused.

"Explain." the King ordered.

"The Magical Ore we can find in our own mines is of the rarest kind, and yet as with any other Ore it can only _channel_ the User's Mana to create a spell and, in the highest grade of [ _ **Magicite**_ _]_ case, _slightly_ amplify it...But the Fire Core you ordered me to study...That can create its own Mana! And not only in an endless quantity, but it can also amplify the User's Magic to hundreds of times if those two Mana flows are properly mixed together!" the old man answered cackling.

"WHAT?!" the assembled councilors yelled as one, having a magic catalyst create Magic on its own was unheard of, reason why Joseph face soon morphed into one of mad satisfaction and greed.

"Good! Very, very good! Any chance of reproducing it artificially? Our use of _MagiTech_ makes us a force feared everywhere, but if our creations can also produce endless Mana then nobody will be able to stop us!" the King said with shaking fists, to his surprise though the scientist deflated at those words so to look mournfully at his feet.

"It's a great regret and shame for me to say that I failed in that regard..." he answered with a tone bordering on the crying.

"How come?" the other asked shocked.

"I tested it again and again, your Majesty! I analyzed everything! I dissected every man and woman that I experimented with when creating artificial cores once those failed and I found nothing...the Fire Core cannot be copied yet and only one soldier can wield its power without going mad, exploding or be drained to death of their Life Force either..." the doctor answered with a low voice.

"I see, who's the soldier?" King Joseph asked with narrowed eyes.

"One of our [ _ **Ace of Aces**_ ], ' _The Devil of the Rhine'_." the other answered making the room fall in a tense silence.

"R-Rhine!" a female counselor gasped in shock.

" _The Rhine City Massacre,_ the battle where over two-thousands of our soldiers died in less than a day because of a joint ambush of our enemies...Only one of us remained alive to return to Barad-se once cut her way through the advancing forces to meet our reinforcements, giving us the key to victory by telling us what do expect and where to strike." another muttered gagging at his gore-filled memories.

"Exactly her: _**The Devil's child.**_ 62 kills and 32 assists in her first mission only, promoted to Lieutenant for her job in Rhine and also known as ' _Mithril'_ and ' _The Argent'_...I should have suspected it, prodigies like that are always eager to stand-out." Joseph answered amused.

"So you added the Fire Core to her standard issue [ _ **Mana Orb**_ ]?"

"No, your Majesty. Just like with my previous Test Subjects I was forced to create an artificial one as normal orbs start melting as soon as Mana flow through it from the Titan's Core. I call what I created for the Lieutenant the [ _ **Elen**_ _ **i**_ _ **um Type 95**_ ] because of the main component of the outer shell being made of pure _Elen_ _i_ _um_ _Magicite._ " the scientist answered.

"You used that super-rare Ore!? PURE?! WHY!?" the woman sitting near him bristled in fury.

"It was the only material able to sustain the strain of both Second Lieutenant abnormal Mana Levels AND the Fire Core working together without exploding! The 95 is not casual either! it's to remind me the number of failures I had before this one FINALLY worked the way me and his Majesty wanted!" the other yelled in answer thus silencing the woman.

"ENOUGH! I have seen the test results and I am fine with this, having a Weapon of Mass Destruction as that Orb promises to be is more than worth the expenses in my opinion!"

"Yes, your Majesty!" both scientist and woman answered as one.

"Very well, anything else to add?" the King asked.

"I do have good news, my Lord." a shady woman dressed in black robes said coming out from the shadows to kneel in front of him.

"Talk."

"It seems like Leodas' daughter has escaped her daddy's loving embrace to go on a small adventure outside the Castle...As for now nobody outside the Royal Family knows about this as everything is being kept under wraps." the spy answered.

"Very interesting! That monster-loving fool has finally made a mistake we can exploit! Brigadier General Ludeldorff!" Joseph said with a crazed smile.

"Yes, my Lord?" a plump old man answered standing to attention.

"Go call our dear Lieutenant! Tell her to drop everything she is doing and depart immediately for Devan for a Solo Mission. Tell her I want her to kidnap Leodas' daughter and bring her back here, harmed or not it's not a problem, I just need that brat alive."

"Yessir!" Ludeldorff answered nodding.

"Ah! And be sure to remember her to bring the [ _ **Recording Orb**_ ] with her as well, I want to see how the [ _ **Elen**_ _ **i**_ _ **um Type 95**_ ] Core works on the field in a proper Mission and Battle." the King added as an after-thought.

"It will be done!" the plump Brigadier General answered as he immediately left the room.

"As for you others, tell to those pests from the _Moon Islands_ to not slack-off, I didn't make an alliance with a bunch of islanders just to do all the job myself. Dismissed!" Joseph ordered.

"Long Live Barad-se!" the counselors answered as one before leaving in an ordinate and silent manner.

 _Sigh!_ "How can me and you become Gods if I have to work with those fools?" the King asked with a tired sigh as soon as he and his wife remained alone.

"I remember you that I have to watch my brother do the same mistakes while also being the King of the Elves...Just be patient and we both will have our perfect world," the man's wife answered showing a small, loving smile.

It would indeed surprise people to see how those two rotten souls could act so warmly with each other when nobody was looking, a pity though that it did nothing to stall their greedy, violent, mad view of everything and everybody else standing outside their small _circle_.

 **War College - Soldiers' Quarters – in the meantime -**

"Lieutenant?" a man asked entering the completely dark bedroom.

"What is it?" a very young and slightly lisping voice asked back gently.

"The-the-the Brigadier General Ludeldorff needs to speak with you!" the poor soldier said scared as the faint red light of the medallion hanging from the girl's neck gave the room an eerie, blood-chilling atmosphere giving to her gentle smile a very creepy appearance.

"I will meet him immediately." she answered nodding sharply.

" _A new Plot of you, you damn bastard? Another trick of yours to force me to be your Herald in here?!_ " she thought in rage as her fury while perfectly hidden to the outside world went directed to the heavens and the realm of the Gods.

Luckily for her there WAS someone listening that was not related to whoever she was angry with that had immediately started planning its own countermeasure to Joseph' plans and whoever she was angry with.

" _Being X_...Someday I will have my revenge." she muttered to herself with a furious snarl.

 **Two days later – With Naruto and Mi – Road to Serena City -**

The small convoy of merchants Naruto and Mi had joined to reach Serena City in Devan was slowly making its way out of a small and yet very dense patch of forest with the former Shinobi and Goblin Girl sitting on the carriage at the head of the group, sitting at both side of Olaf the dwarf that was driving it himself.

"...And you think your people will give me a chance to explain?" Naruto asked again unsure.

"Normally they would kill you as soon as you take a step in the city's border," the dwarf answered shrugging and making Mi look at her friend with very worried eyes.

"But luckily for you my brother happens to know our Leader well enough, if I explain beforehand I am sure they will _at least_ give you the benefit of the doubt." Olaf continued saying smiling.

" _Gee!_ Thank you, old man!" Naruto answered in sarcasm.

"Eh! Next time be born as a dwarf then! Or as a human at least! My people are way more accepting in that case," he answered laughing loudly.

"It's not like I was told I would have been reborn as a Goblin..." Naruto muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing."

"City still far?" Mi asked trying to use human Language.

"Not too much, little Mi." Olaf answered gently.

"You are learning well! I am impressed!" Dhoran said happily as he peeked outside from the carriage the dwarf was driving.

"She is very motivated," one of the soldiers guarding the convoy answered smirking.

"Mi-chan is very smart," Naruto added making the girl blush at his praise.

"Thank you."

"Listen, Naruto...Who named you?" Olaf asked turning serious out of the blue and making everyone around tense subtly.

"What do you mean? Goblin too can have names." the former shinobi answered shrugging.

"Yes and no..." Dhoran said adjusting his glasses.

"Eh?"

"A name does not appear when a Monster is _Appraised_...Unless he or she is _**[Named]**_." Olaf explained with a toneless voice.

"Eh?" Naruto asked confused.

" _ **[Named Monster]:**_ Names have powers and [ _ **Names**_ ] even more so. When a Monster is _[_ _ **Named**_ _]_ it means it has a ' _Special_ ' name attached to them by either a third party or special circumstances, a [ _ **Name**_ ] given by someone else often means that the named Monster ' _Belongs_ ' to the one that named it, even if that doesn't automatically mean servitude or forced loyalty. A named Monster always presents more power than a ' _Normal_ ' one. **"** Kurama explained.

"Somebody named you?" Olaf asked looking at him intently.

"Huhuhu! Nope! I hated the name our Elder gave me at my birth, so I went behind the old Hag's back and decided my own name...I didn't know it had THAT MUCH effect." Naruto answered smirking.

"Mi named Mi too, Naruto likes new name so I changed it!" Mi added nodding once explained by her friend what they were talking about.

"...That's it?" the dwarf asked shocked.

"Yup! Naruto Namikaze sounds cooler than ' _Goblin Nori'…_ Right?"

"F-Fishcake? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shin, an archer born in the Lunar Islands, said before laughing so hard to almost fall from the horse he was riding.

"It means ' _Maelstrom'_ as well, asshole!" Naruto replied furious.

"Eh! Point taken!" the archer answered still smirking.

"Strange [ _Title]..._ " another voice said faintly from inside.

"Ah! Yes! One of your Titles is strange, any idea why?" Dhoran asked curious.

"Strange?"

"I wrote it down...Here!" the scholar answered showing to Olaf a piece of parchment.

"It says 'e%Z"/8- _ **Err**_.'…What does it even mean?!" the dwarf asked.

"Impossible appraise more." the same voice answered uncertain.

" **I know, I managed to stop them from seeing too much** **myself** **.** " Kurama answered bitterly.

"Can you people PLEASE mind your own business?!" Naruto asked angrily.

"We were just curious about our new friend, and I fear that we will need a High Level Appraisal to really see through you...We only know you are named, have the _**[Job]**_ ' _Leaf Shinobi'_ (That nobody here has ever heard about) and that you have that nonsensical Title." Dhoran answered with a sorry expression.

"Tch! I love my Privacy, thank you!" Naruto answered sticking his nose up in the air and pouting.

" **To be honest, we should hope NOBODY will ever discover what that Title entails...** " Kurama said worried.

" _Why?"_

" **I can translate that. It says "** _ **The**_ _ **C**_ _ **hosen**_ _ **O**_ _ **ne who died and was**_ _ **reborn**_ _ **from beyond the stars**_ **". It literally says that we are not from this world,** **i** **f somebody discover** **s** **this we will attract too much attention,** _ **ESPECIALLY**_ **of the bad kind."** the Former Biju answered.

" _Shit! I am carrying a neon sign saying who I am! Anything else?"_

" **Luckily nothing yet, I'll alert you if something more compromising pops-out!** "

"Can it be that your Appraisal failed?" the former shinobi asked curious.

"Not like that, it either works or it doesn't, it never gives ' _ **Error**_ _**Messages**_ '. It is not how the spell works." the same faint female voice replied.

"Thea knows her spells, I wonder why it fails with you then." Dhoran muttered sighing.

"Maybe is because I am awesome," Naruto muttered to Mi in the Goblin Language.

"To me you are," she answered smiling.

"Don't talk in a Language the others do not understand, it's very impolite." Olaf admonished chuckling.

"Then learn _Goblin_." the reborn shinobi answered smirking.

"I already do know something."

"Really? What?"

"The essentials: ' _Go away.'_ , ' _Attack my cargo and die.'_ , ' _I will chop your head off.',_ several curses/insults and ' _Where is the Bathroom?'_." Olaf answered shrugging making both Naruto and Mi sweat-drop.

"Church Ahead! Church Ahead!" one of the soldiers said in alarm while folding his binoculars.

"Church?" Naruto asked.

"The Holy Church of Elrune. People professing the faith in the Gods and only recognizing the mother of them all Elrune herself as the only god " _Worthy"_ of being followed and adored. They usually wander around preaching left and right to bring the words of their religion everywhere. Their ranks are mostly composed by humans but lately other races too have some members joining them," Olaf answered grimacing.

"Bad news then?" the Hobgoblin asked worried.

"Pretty much. As a Dwarf I believe in other Gods, especially the ' _ **God of the Forge**_ ' who technically created my race in his _Divine Forge_ (if you listen our _Lore_ ); that puts me in their shit-list so to speak as I do not pray to Elrune exclusively like they would prefer me to do...Especially in the most bigoted ones' case that don't like whoever is not following _**their**_ Religious Ideals...Or is not Human." the other answered sighing.

"...And what do they think about Goblins?" he asked looking at Mi in worry.

"Please don't make me answer that." Olaf answered shivering.

"Why they are here?" the red-haired soldier asked as she neared the front of the convoy.

"Probably doing some rounds to keep the roads safe." Olaf answered shrugging.

"Too many guards...Oooh, shit! Those are _**Inner Circle**_ Guards!" Shin answered blanching as he too used his binoculars to look better.

"Naruto! Mi! HIDE!" Olaf yelled with wide eyes.

"W-W-What?"

"Inner Circle guards are the most heavily armed and better trained soldiers of the Church, they never move outside the cathedrals or the Church HQ unless they are escorting a member of the Inner Circle, it means that somebody pretty high in the hierarchy is with them! If they see you two they will attack first and then question our corpses later!" the Dwarf explained stopping abruptly and pushing both down.

"High?" Mi asked confused.

" _Cardinal_ is the lowest step in the Inner Circle, then there is _High Cardinal_ , _Holy_ _Kin_ _of the Brotherhood_ and then the most important one that is the Leader of the Church as a whole, bestowed with the Title _**[Pope]**_ upon election at the death of his/her predecessor." Dhoran rapidly explained (and Naruto translated) as both Goblin and Hobgoblin hurriedly went hidden in one of the carriages on the far back and covered by some old drapes between the empty barrels and chests stored in there.

"Out of the thirteen members of the Inner Circle ( _Leader_ excluded as he _**NEVER**_ leaves the Church HQ), only one or two would be ' _open-minded_ ' enough to not kill Goblin on sight and treat every non-human race like dirt should he or she meet us...So we better not challenge our Luck." Shin added once checked the two were hidden well enough.

"Ready?" Olaf asked worried.

 _Sigh!_ "Yes, they might have spotted us already, and since they are not attacking we shouldn't have caught their attention too much when moving those two as well, but if we make them run away they WILL notice...Let's hope that just hiding them will be enough." Dhoran answered sighing.

"Let's hope so, if we are lucky they will be too much in a hurry to check our carts thoroughly...Tell the others to move, it's time to face the music." the dwarf said steeling his resolve.

"Hai!" Shin answered nodding.

"...Eh! He fell back into _Lunar..._ Must be worried sick himself," Olaf grunted whipping the horses in front of him into motion.

 **Meanwhile – With the Inner Circle Soldiers -**

The two dozen guards, all wearing silver-coloured armours with the shoulders shaped like lion heads and pyramidal helmets, were at the moment surrounding a duo of women wearing very concealing black hooded robes while also keeping the two away from the six-wheeled carriage they had been tasked to protect.

"What is it? Why we stopped?" asked annoyed the lone occupant of the overly-decorated gold-made carriage.

"Nothing to be worried about, Master Mazarin! Just two unknown women we almost ran over." the captain of the Guards answered taking away his helmet to show a scar-riddled middle-age face and an old-looking eye-patch covering his left eye.

"Two women?" the Clerical man repeated confused as his rotund face poked from the window of his personal transport.

"What are you doing out here alone, dear children?" he then asked with his gentlest tone and a grand-fatherly smile.

"J-Just traveling." one of them answered trying to shield her companion with her whole body.

"Do not be afraid. The Great Mother Elrune is smiling upon you, making our paths cross so to stop Evil from befalling on you," Mazarin answered as he opened his carriage's door to descend.

"C-C-Cardinal!?" the Captain said shocked.

"It's okay, dear Captain. We have nothing to fear from these gentle girls. What is your name, children?" the obese man asked jovially.

"Albedo," the one protecting the other answered with unseen narrowed eyes.

"Such a lovely name! Very peculiar, but also very cute...And your friend?" Mazarin asked getting closer before stopping as he saw something was wrong with the hiding girl of the two.

"What is wrong with your friend's legs?" he asked with his face morphing into a sneer at seeing something big slither under the woman's long gown and the tip of something covered by scaled skin poke for an instant before disappearing under the cloth.

"..."

"Guards! The hoods." the Cardinal ordered making one move fast to tear off Albedo's hood to show her long raven locks, pale white horns circling her forehead and her golden eyes.

"M-M-MONSTER!" Mazarin shrieked stumbling back and making the soldiers around him prepare their weapons.

"I told you it was a bad idea!" Albedo's friend hissed as she showed possessing a long snake-like body instead of legs hiding under her robes.

"A Lamia! Kill both! KILL BOTH!" the Cardinal ordered as swords, lances and halberds descended rapidly on the two in a flurry of shredded robes.

"ARGH! You okay?" Albedo asked as she readied her own weapon, a bardiche (a long poleaxe), and fully extending her big black-feathered wings from the hip area of her pure-white dress.

"S-S-SUCCUBUS!" one of the soldiers yelled horrified.

"Yes, I am fine but they won't let us go away alive, THAT'S WHY I SAID WE NEEDED TO BE CAREFUL!" the other girl answered as she only managed to save the hood covering her face, showing how the lower half of her body was that of a pale-red snake while the ' _Human girl'_ top half was grey-skinned and covered in tribal tattoos on the left arm and side of the body, her ' _armour'_ was only a black top made of metal and a ' _skirt'_ signaling the start of her snake half.

Of her whole face only her silver hair were visible due to them being extremely long and reaching past her waist.

"Ali-" Albedo tried saying with a sheepish smile.

"Ssssh! Not now!" the snake-girl answered as she summoned in her hands a black staff with an apple-sized red gem on the top.

"Not a simple Lamia...but a rare _**[Echidna]**_...Step back, Master Mazarin, we need to be cautious!" the Captain said with narrowed eyes as he moved in front of the cleric to shield him.

"Monsters…MONSTERS! I hate monsters! This is a road for humans to pass through! Why you are here!?" Mazarin demanded furious.

"This is a free country, we can come and go wherever and however we please!" Albedo answered haughtily.

" _I am ready to buff you,_ " the Echidna muttered as she clutched her staff hard.

"Free country?!" Mazarin said growling.

"It is a free country, yes! Free and protected by Elrune, the one and ONLY Goddess! But this is aimed at _humans_! Not Creatures!" the Cardinal added seething.

"Merchants convoy incoming!" one of the guards in the rear yelled.

"Tell them to stop and wait, this is a matter of Church Affairs!" Mazarin replied uninterested.

"What is happening?" Olaf asked as soon as his cart was near enough.

"Nothing too grievous as we are just enacting a purging, those two beasts are in the way so just a minute and we will cleanse the road, my dear." the rotund cardinal answered amicably.

" _Purging?!_ " Naruto mentally hissed as he kept spying on what was happening.

"Purging?" Olaf asked unknowingly mimicking the question.

"An Echidna and a Succubus are standing in the way, just be patient and the proud soldiers of the Church of Elrune will ' _remove them'_ for good. This is no place for monsters, nor the road, or this world." Mazarin answered amused as both Albedo and her friend huddled close griping their weapons tightly.

"I heard Succubus' skin is so smooth that you can make a scarf with it better than any silk!" a near soldier added smirking.

"And Echidna's liver is a fundamental ingredient for Rare High-Grade Healing potions...Along tasting great. The last one I can testify personally, my dear! Hohoho!" the cardinal answered nodding.

"Damn you..." the hooded echidna growled angrily in answer.

"You should feel honoured, it is not everyday that a member of the Inner Circle himself performs a purging, especially for something as trivial as pest extermination. Captain! Bring on them the full might of the Church of Elrune! PURIFY THEM! Make their screams echo to the sky and show our Goddess that we are protecting the world she created!" Mazarin ordered with a crazed smile.

"Shields up! Weapons Ready!" The Captain answered ordering the other soldiers that immediately moved in formation circling the two monster girls.

"Stand close to me," Albedo muttered with narrowed eyes as she glared at the soldiers closing on them.

"Naruto! No!" Mi begged with a low voice at seeing her friend hands shake in repressed anger.

"...I am sorry, Mi. I can't leave them alone against those men." he answered shaking his head.

"I was asking to join, not to not attack them." the Goblin girl answered.

"Huhuhu! You really want to Evolve, don't you? Very well, but stay close to me and be ready to retreat if things get too difficult," Naruto answered shaking his head.

"Okay!" she said nodding.

"Then follow me, we will sneak out and join the fight, like that Olaf-san and the others shouldn't look like accomplices."

 **With the soldiers – at the same time -**

"SOLDIERS!" the Captain said rising his blade high in the sky.

"PURIFY!" he then ordered slashing down.

 _Ktha-Chunk!_ "ARGH!"

" **RASENGAN!** " at the same time the order was given an arrow pierced behind the knee of one of the soldiers making him stumble while a spiraling sphere of energy went slammed on the chest of another making the man's armour bend inward and twist into a spiral mark along shooting the soldier away.

"You okay? Reinforcements are here!" Naruto yelled joining the two girls with a simple-looking iron club he had liberated from the Olaf' carts beforehand.

"A-A-A Hobgoblin?" Albedo's friend said surprised.

"A silver one, you don't see them around often." the succubus added with a raised eyebrow.

"Not all of us are brainless morons that kill, eat and fuck everything that moves! Some of us do have a sense of right and wrong, and I happen to be one of them! Those bastards want to kill you just because you are not human, right?" he answered without looking away from the soldiers.

"Pretty much, yes. Apparently that was bad enough." Albedo answered.

"Then I feel justified in kicking their ass!"

"A Hobgoblin too joined the Purging? I am happy to see our beloved Elrune smile upon us!" Mazarin asked sneering in disgust.

"You know? I bet is because people like you are around that humans have a bad reputation, I don't know you and yet I can already tell that I do not like you!" Naruto answered as a new arrow flew close to the man piercing the sleeve of his ecclesiastic robes pinning him to a near tree and making him shriek in fright.

"Another Hobgoblin?" Albedo asked curious.

"Yep! A dear friend of mine named Mi." Naruto answered smirking.

"YOU! DWARF! Move your convoy back or we won't be held responsible for collateral damages!" the Captain ordered making the merchants hurriedly backtrack.

"Why you are helping us?" the echidna asked as once again soldiers surrounded the trio.

"You seemed in need of help," he answered.

"That's it?"

"I can ' _smell'_ bad people, and you two don't look like bad people, so I am helping!" the former shinobi answered smiling.

"Your name?" he then asked.

"Alice." the Echidna answered making Albedo turn to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Like the King's daughter? Cool name, I am Naruto, nice to meet ya!"

"Albedo, nice to meet you." The Succubus added shaking her head in defeat at the new development.

"We have seen the archer!" one of the soldiers said as a couple of his companions moved towards the hiding spot of Mi.

"SHIT! Don't you dare touch her! AH!" growling in rage the Hobgoblin sprang forward at high speed to attack the soldier.

"YOU FOOL! THE SHIELDS OF OUR SOLDIERS ARE BLESSED BY ELRUNE HERSEL- _ **DOOOOOOOONG!**_ " Mazarin started saying before the reborn shinobi's club slammed against the soldier's thick shield bending it in half and crushing the man holding it between the steel-made defence and the tree behind him and even uprooting the plant.

"Tch! This thing is too frail," Naruto hissed while looking at the broken mace he was now holding as its head was instead deeply buried inside the bent shield.

"H-H-HOY! That was too strong for an attack!" another soldier said.

" _To be honest, it was..._ " Naruto mentally admitted.

" **Eh! Welcome to your last** _ **Evolutionary Step**_ **as a member of the '** _ **Goblin'**_ **Species! From now on your choices of evolution will multiply considerably depending on several factors, so you are back into being yourself as a '** _ **Base'**_ **for later Level Ups,"** Kurama answered with a mirthful chuckle.

" _Eh?"_

" **Your body is now a new version of your old one from you** **r** **past life, only looking like a Hobgoblin; what you were before you are once again now: your speed, your strength, your agility...Everything, You have your old body back and from now on, you will only get stronger. That Giant you met in your dreams '** _ **unlocked'**_ **your previous life's '** _ **Stats'**_ **...Congratulations! You are officially one OP Motherfucker! Hahahaha!"** the Biju replied amused.

" _Why you didn't tell me sooner?!"_

" **It's funnier like this.** "

"Stop gaping like idiots! Kill them!" the Captain ordered as his own claymore sword descended towards Naruto's head.

 _ **CLANG**!_

"Don't stand there! Fight!" Albedo said stopping the attack with her weapon and pushing the soldier back.

"Sorry, I just evolved so I didn't expect to be this strong, this is my first fight since I evolved." the former shinobi answered taking the short sword of the soldier he had attacked first to stand close to Albedo and Alice.

"Mi! Come here, they know where you are!" he then ordered making the young Goblin hurry to join them.

"A Goblin? That's all your back-up?!" Alice hissed angrily.

"Mi is close at evolving herself and is an amazing archer, give her some credit, she will surprise you." he answered proudly making her smile.

"And you intend to use my men as a mean to make her evolve?!" the Captain asked growling.

"This world is not nice, so me and my friends need to grow strong fast if we want to survive,"

"Then you made a huge mistake, lancers!"

At that four soldiers armed with long and clearly-heavy lances stepped forward with the thick bladed tip pointed directly at the monster group's face.

"I am hating your plan, Albedo. I am hating it with all myself!" Alice admitted as she slithered a little back to take distance.

"Plan?" Naruto asked.

"It's a long story, but in short we decided to go on a little adventure on our own, unfortunately we had to stumble on those disgusting people and we were about to be attacked, then you joined us." Albedo answered.

"And you were the one organizing everything?"

"Pretty much...Or at least she tried, I had to call a friend of mine that would have helped us enter Serena City without too much of a fuss and hopefully take some missions, just easy ones to have something to break monotony." Alice answered sighing.

"You can take missions without a Guild? Only you two?" Naruto asked confused.

"..." Alice groaned in answer as she face-palmed.

"...I knew I was forgetting something..." Albedo admitted.

" **Really? REALLY?! They** _ **Forgot**_ **a fundamental part of their '** _ **Plan'**_ **? That can't be true!** " Kurama said shocked.

"You are joking," Naruto asked in disbelief.

"No, I am ashamed to admit that we are not, I forgot we needed to join a Guild to take missions." Alice admitted sighing.

"A bunch of monsters playing heroes? Taking missions? Who in their right mind would trust you THINGS for anything?!" Mazarin asked disgusted.

"Lamias and Echidnas are openly recognized as trustworthy!" Alice replied greatly offended.

" _Pfeh_! Lies, maybe some poor peasant may, but we others barely accept to have around our beloved land King Leodas' wife and the royal princess, and that is because we trust the King's judgment and recognize that the Princess has human blood inside her veins as well," the Cardinal answered scoffing.

"I call bullshit, you people are just a bunch of morons hating whoever is not human! What's wrong with a Guild of ' _Monsters'_ to begin with? Are you afraid to see us surpass you others? To be better than you bastards? For your interest I plan on becoming a great Mercenary, and create the strongest Guild of this world. I am gonna be a damn hero, teme!" Naruto answered with crossed arms.

"A hero Hobgoblin?" Albedo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Why not? Either that or the closest thing to it possible," he answered shrugging.

"You? A Mercenary? A HERO? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" the Cardinal said before a full-belly laugh erupted from him making his various ' _double chins'_ tremble along his protruding belly and the various trinkets dangling from his hips making a subtle ' _ting!'_ sound follow his laughing.

"Goblins, Hobgoblins, all the same! You scum can't be more than mere cannon fodder! You all are weak! Pathetic! Errors of Nature that can only bother real warriors and waste space and resources!"

"Naruto," Mi said worried as she heard her beloved friend grit his teeth in anger and moving to stand closer to him to comfort him.

"Aah, yes! That must be your mate then...Another mistake of mother nature, your ' _women'_ as well aren't even worthy of being sold for slavery or your meat to be cooked! Really, there is no use for your lot!" the rich man continued saying while ignoring the glares of Naruto's group in favour of taking out a stone barely bigger than his fist and shining in a faint purple light.

"You want to be a Mercenary? To be the closest thing to a hero? Well, then I feel obliged to burst your bubble before your silly dreams get you killed! Consider it a sign of good faith from my being a man from the Church of Elrune; do you see this pretty rock? This is a rare LV8 _**[Appraisal Stone]**_ we High Clerics of the Church use to seek future candidates for the _Holy Guards_ that protect our lands from beasts like you and other dangers."

"So?" Naruto asked with narrowed eyes.

"So I am going to make you a HUGE concession and use it on you, there is a way to openly display the results instead of just me knowing, your dear ' _friends'_ will be the ones telling you the sad truth, that you are not strong enough to achieve your goal and will never be...Nor now, nor ever." the man answered.

"You Lie! Naruto is strong! Very Strong!" Mi growled in fury.

"I would listen to the girl, he doesn't seem to be your ' _everyday'_ Hobgoblin." Alice warned with narrowed eyes still hidden by her hood.

"Strong? He? For a Goblin maybe, but for us humans? I doubt it." the Captain of the soldiers answered shaking his head in a mocking way.

" _ **I think I can block that thing's powers if you want.**_ " Kurama muttered snarling.

" _No, let him. I want to see how good I am now and how much more I need to grow._ " Naruto answered mentally.

" _ **Okay, I'll trust you on that, let's hope it won't show**_ _ **you**_ _ **have that stone inside**_ _ **your body**_ _ **or we will be forced to kill them all.**_ "

"So? What do you say?" The Priest asked with a wicked smile.

"Go on, I am curious myself." the former shinobi answered smirking.

"Very well, just prepare to be displeased. _**Shared**_ _**Appraisal!**_ " the old man answered holding the stone in front of himself and pointing at Naruto as he chanted loudly his Spell.

Immediately after he finished a monotone voice resounded in everyone's head along the projection of words and numbers appearing in a ' _corner'_ of their field of vision.

 **Beginning Appraisal!**

『Hobgoblin – [ _ **Named**_ ] - "Naruto Namikaze" - LV1

 _ **Job:**_

[ _ **Leaf Shinobi**_ ] ( _Details_ )

 _ **Stats:**_

ＨＰ：４６６３／４６６３（Green）  
ＭＰ：6０７６／6０７６（Blue）  
ＳＰ：7５７０／7５７０（Yellow）  
 _CHK_ ： _ **Err**_. （Red）( _Appraisal Failed_ )  
Average Offensive Ability：4６１０  
Average Defensive Ability：4５９７  
Average Magic Ability：４０２２  
Average Resistance Ability：5１３  
Average Speed Ability：6５５５

 _ **Skill:**_

「Heavy Shell LV1」

「High-speed HP Recovery LV4」

「High-speed MP Recovery LV4」

「Great MP Consumption Down LV5」

「Magic Perception LV2」

「Precise Magic Manipulation LV1」

「Magic Combat Act LV2」

「Great Offensive Magic Power LV1」

「High-speed SP Recovery LV6」

「Great SP Consumption Down LV5」

「War God Spirit LV1」

「Great Vitality Granting LV8」

「Great Enhanced Destruction LV3」

「Great Enhanced Slashing LV1」

「Great Enhanced Piercing LV1」

「Great Enhanced Blunt LV2」

「Vigor LV5」

「Space Maneuver LV8」

「Easy Escape LV4」

「Accuracy LV7」

「Evasion LV10」

「 _Tree Walking_ 」

「 _Water Walking_ 」

「 _Chakra Manipulation_ 」

「 _Ninja Training_ 」

「 _Shadow Clone Technique_ 」

「 _Rasengan LV3_ 」

「 _Kawarimi_ 」

「 _Henge LV7_ 」

「Great Probability Correction LV2」

「Stealth LV10」

「Camouflage LV5」

「Poison Creation LV 3」

「Blacksmith LV2」

「Danger Perception LV1」

「Presence Perception LV4」

「Heat Perception LV5」

「Motion Perception LV6」

「Shadow Magic LV7」

「Dark Magic LV7」

「Great Chaos Magic LV8」

「Great Wind Magic LV2」

「Great Fire Magic LV2」

「 _Consume_ 」

「 _Regeneration_ 」

「Great Physical Attack Resistance LV2」

「 _T_ _hermal_ _F_ _luctuation_ _R_ _esistance EX_ 」

「Great Shock Resistance LV3」

「Great Poison Resistance LV3」

「Paralysis Nullity」

「Chaos Nullity」

「Great Lightning Resistance LV8」

「Water Resistance LV4」

「Fire Resistance LV5」

「Earth Resistance LV3」

「Great Wind Resistance LV4」

「Dark Resistance LV6」

「Great Abnormal Condition Resistance LV7」

「Corrosion Resistance LV4」

「Fear Nullity」

「Great Pain Alleviation LV7」

「Night Vision LV3」

「Visible Range Expansion LV2」

「Enhanced Vision LV10」

「Telephoto LV8」

「Enhanced Hearing LV10」

「Hearing Range Expansion LV3」

「Enhanced Smell LV8」

「Enhanced Touch LV7」

「Luck LV8」

「Heaven Mana LV1」

「Heaven Motion LV1」

「Abundant Sky LV1」

「Fortitude LV3」

「Fortress LV5」

「Heaven Path LV1」

「 _Heav_ _enly Third Eye_ 」

「 _Heaven Protection_ 」

「Iron Will LV 8」

「 _Leaf's Will of Fire_ 」

 _ **Title:**_

「Monster Killer」 「Monster Slaughterer」

「Big Eater」「Bottomless」

「Ability Thief」

「Assassin」 「Conqueror」 「Natural Calamity」

「 _Ninja_ 」「The Unpredictable」

「He who Transcended Life, Death and Chaos 」「He Who Defeats Fate」

「e%Z"/8- _ **Err**_.」

 _ **Blessing:**_

 _ **Minor:**_ **[** _Great_ _Wisdom_ _of the Trickster God._ **]** _(_ _ **Unique**_ _)_

 _ **Great:**_ **[** _Divine Blessing of the Supreme God of Chaos._ **]** _(_ _ **Legendary**_ _)_ 』

 _ **End of the appraisal!**_

"W-W-WHAT THE HELL?!" The man shrieked dropping the stone and falling on his ass.

"T-There must be a mistake! Yes! The Appraisal Stone must be malfunctioning!" The Captain-ranked Guard said while still looking pale.

"There is still room for improvement...I see too many skills with a low level," Naruto muttered uncertain.

"You got all of those from eating? Awesome!" Mi answered with starry-eyes of amazement.

" **To be honest,** **the stats and** **most of** **those skills** **probably** **come from your past as ninja, like "** _ **Fearless**_ **", "** _ **Will of Fire**_ **" and Elemental Affinities** **for example** **(Fire and Wind especially since we both are REALLY proficient in those)...The Dark, Chaos and Shadow Magic ones come from your two** _ **Blessings**_ **and the rest either from eating stuff or that voice we heard while we were dying the first time,** " Kurama answered guessing.

" _And the enhanced senses?"_ Naruto asked.

" **You are...** _ **Were**_ **a Jinchuuriki the moment you died, the advanced senses used to come with the package, you never noticed because for you that was '** _ **Normal'**_ **since** **we have been together ever since you were a toddler and nobody apparently thought about telling you.** **I guess the ones written differently are all '** _ **unique'**_ **to you as well.** **"**

"My boy, that is a damn fine list of skills," Olaf admitted with a low whistle.

"Last time I saw stats like that...It was by Appraising an _Elder Salamander_ _Drake_ , a _20_ _th_ _Floor_ [ _ **Floor Boss**_ ] in Eridmun's Dungeon in the North...No LV 1 Hobgoblin should have those..." Shin said faintly.

"Drake?"

" **A [Drake] is a rare evolutionary step of the Salamanders, after that there is the** **even-rarer** **[Dragon] step.** " Kurama said impressed.

"So I can be a Mercenary or part of a Guild?" Naruto asked aloud confused.

"Yep! You better be fast in creating or joining one too though! If news about a Hobgoblin like you roaming the streets goes around, the number of hunters out for your blood will get pretty damn long really fast!" Olaf answered patting the young man's back.

"Albedo..." Alice muttered.

"He is not normal, that's for sure, and he seems to be interested in joining or creating a Guild, so..."

"You think he may help us?"

"It would help both us and he himself, along his friend...We would only lack two members then..."

"Yes." the echidna girl replied nodding in determination.

"I can hear you!" the former shinobi said with a sing-song voice.

"Urk!" both girls groaned in embarrassment.

"And I think that you are right, if we get the missing members to form our own Guild, I can't see why I shouldn't help you. Because I think that I have good chances of becoming someone after all, ne?" Naruto asked to Mazarin while crossing his arms.

"NO! I will not stand for this! This just proves you need to die!" The Cardinal roared in fury as he opened a book in front of himself to tear away half their pages to create a wide barrier around the group.

"Cardinal Mazarin?!" the Guards' Captain said with wide eyes.

"A mere Hobgoblin surpassing me...Surpassing the current holder of the _**[Hero]**_ Title The Church itself is Championing...A _**Monster**_ Surpassing a _**human**_!...NO! NO! INCONCEIVABLE! IMPOSSIBLE! BLASPHEMOUS!"

"Hey, old man. Calm down." Naruto hissed with narrowed eyes.

"YOU DARE TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN!? I WON'T PERMIT YOU TO LIVE ANOTHER INSTANT INSTEAD! A CREATURE AS BLASPHEMOUS AS YOU EXISTING WILL BE A MARK OF INFAMY FOR THE CHURCH OF ELRUNE! A HERO!? A MERCENARY?! NO! YOU AND YOUR WHOLE GROUP SHALL BE ERASED ALONG THE MONSTER WHORES YOU ARE DEFENDING! NO MONSTER WILL EVER SURPASS HUMANS FOR AS LONG AS I DRAW BREATH! I WILL KILL YOU ALL! I WILL ERASE EVERY TRACE OF YOUR EXISTENCE! I DON'T CARE IF WOMEN AND CHILDREN TOO WILL DIE! WHOEVER HELPS MONSTERS. WILL. DIE! **[Summoning]!** " the man said making all the remaining pages of his book fly off to create a halo of light above himself.

"COME! **[Dominion Authority]!** " he then said as a giant being of light exited the circle, towering over everyone present with its six feet height and opening wide six angelic wings to show a rich robe made of feathers as well and a golden helmet decorated by a two crosses intersecting at the top and with an elaborated circle of runes slowly spinning behind its back.

"This is an Archangel Summon! A Level 7 Summon only me and my brothers of the Inner Circle of the Church of Elrune can call upon! A being that can carry the very will of the Gods and smite without mercy the infidels and the monsters endangering our beloved land!" Mazarin said as innumerable feathers kept raining from the sky in an endless rain.

"Cardinal! If you use that me and my soldiers too will be caught in the crossfire!" the Captain said taking a step back and bumping against the barrier the cardinal had created previously.

"Then die! Die as a Martyr for the Church! I will tell about you and your men's noble sacrifice to permit me to go back to the Capital! About how you all threw away your lives to destroy this abomination we have met!" the fat man answered uncaring.

"You don't even care about your own men?!" Naruto yelled furious.

"As I said, The most important thing is that _**I**_ return home! One day I will don the robes of the High Deacon of Elrune! I will receive the title of **[Pope]** and will bring the words of Elrune far and wide for the glory of our Church! Those men will be remembered! They will be lauded as the heroes that permitted me to safely complete my journey!" Mazarin answered making the soldiers behind him gasp in shock.

"What?! I didn't join the Army to help you raise in rank! But to protect my Village! To protect my homeland!" a brave soldier stepped forward to answer.

"Silence! Do not dare to talk back to a Cardinal, you dirty peasant!" Mazarin answered as the Archangel launched a small burst of lightning from its hand with an uncaring gesture and making the soldier fly back screaming in agony.

"JEFFREY!" the Captain yelled with wide eyes as he and the others moved to help their fallen comrade.

"Let him die, his faith in me was not pure enough." the Cardinal said in disinterest.

"His faith...In you?!" the Captain growled.

"As future head of the Church, yes. I will one day represent the will of Elrune, she will enact her will through me...So I cannot let infidels insult her." the fat man answered.

" **You know? I think the asshole has just won himself the honor of being the Test Subject for your [** _ **Chaos**_ **] and [** _ **Dark**_ **] Magic.** " Kurama said growling.

" _You think so?_ "

" **Yes, he is clearly sincere about killing the others** **and sacrificing whoever he wants to reach his goals**."

" _Very well._ _How do I use Magic?_ " Naruto asked.

" **Just will it and the selection screen will appear. Like Magic!** " Kurama answered, and Naruto could swear he felt the Biju/Skill smirk at his own joke.

" _Ah-ha..._ " the reincarnated shinobi answered as a handy ' _list'_ of Magic grouped by their respective Elements appeared in front of him ready to be selected by a simple touch.

"Now Punish the Hobgoblin first! Smite him with the full power of the Goddess Elrune's Judgment! **[HOLY LIGHT]!**

"Naruto!" Mi yelled in fear as a giant pillar of light rapidly fell from the sky pointing at the hobgoblin.

"Let's start with _**Chaos Magic**_. [ **Negative Burst]!** " the young man intoned summoning around himself a dome of pitch-black energy that then exploded outwards obliterating the Archangel's own Magic attack.

[ **Negative Burst]:  
** _High Tier Defensive Magic, non-elemental. It summons a wide barrier of Pure Chaos around the user and close Allies, it stops projectile weapons and can even reflect spells right back at the sender if lower in level instead of canceling them._

"W-W-What?! That was a Level 8 Holy Spell! HOW DID YOU SURVIVE?!" Mazarin bellowed furious.

"Mine was a Level 8 Chaos Spell, unfortunately for you, my _Affinity_ for Chaos is WAY higher than yours with Holy spells, so my Magic Defense trumped your Magic Attack canceling it." the Hobgoblin answered smirking.

" _Did I said it right?_ " he mentally added unsure.

" **You repeated my words perfectly, so you sounded even more badass, now go for** **Dark** **Magic, make that giant parrot kiss the ground!** " Kurama answered amused.

"Wow..." Albedo muttered impressed.

"Down, girl." Alice answered chuckling.

"Step back, girls! I need to see if I can take him." the former shinobi asked cautious.

"Be careful." Mi answered nodding as she and the others moved slightly back to leave him more room to move.

"AGAIN! ATTACK HIM AGAIN!" the Cardinal said screaming madly.

"Nope! Dark Magic now! **[Graviga!]** " Naruto intoned as a red aura enveloped the summoned angel to slam it on the ground.

"Since it flies, it is especially susceptible to that spell, now choose! Go away and let us be or keep fighting and have me kick your ass!"

 _ **[Graviga!]:  
** High-Tier Offensive Magic, Dark Attribute. Increases the force of gravity on the Target to crushing levels with high chances of inflicting the [ **Paralysis** ] Status along causing moderate damage. Inflicts extra damage to Flying enemies and greatly reduces their Evasiveness for a short period of time._

"NEVER! I will be the next High Deacon of Elrune! I will be the next Holy Chosen of the Church! If I lose now, Elrune herself will lose!" the Cardinal answered spitting madly.

"He has lost it," Olaf muttered worried.

"What should we do then?" Dhoran asked.

"Have the others move away as slowly as possible, we need to keep everybody out of that man's range, I don't trust that barrier he has put up between us and them." the dwarf answered.

"Okay."

 **With Naruto -**

"DIEEEEEEE! [ **HOLY SPEAR]**!" Mazarin yelled with crazy eyes as a javelin of light appeared in the Archangel's hands to physically assault Naruto.

" **Dark Magic!** " the former shonobi said jumping away just in time to evade the spear and then thrusting his hand forward.

"[ **Hell Fire]**!" at that movement a thick wave of dark-red flames enveloped the Summon making it shriek in agony and move around wildly.

"NOOOOOOO!"

" **Chaos Magic...** " Naruto said lowly and with narrowed eyes.

"Eh?!" Mazarin muttered in horror.

" **[Black Hole]!** " the Hobgoblin then said as a small sphere of darkness, barely as big as an orange, appeared in the chest of the Archangel.

The effect was instantaneous as with a deafening scream the angel's body went forced inside the way-too-small ' _hole'_ in space tearing the towering being to pieces as it went crammed in there without mercy until nothing remained.

"NOOOOO!" Mazarin screamed in disbelief as the book in front of him burst in flames forcing him to drop it to the floor and watch it burn.

"Ooh! That blew a hole in my Mana I fear..." Naruto moaned as he fell sitting on the ground groaning.

" **You used High level Spel** **ls** **in rapid succession, even if you have them AND know how to use them it doesn't mean that you** **already** **have the '** _ **Reserves'**_ **for** **them** **as well** **. That Black** **H** **ole** **alone** **instantly** **halved your** _ **M**_ _ **p**_ **s** **and then** **the [Hell Fire] and [Negative Burst]** **took** **another third** **each, so** **j** **ust stick to low level spells until you recover...In a couple of hours**." Kurama answered proud.

"You devil...Enemy of Elrune...A being spitting on the face of the gods...WHY DON'T YOU DIEEEE!" Mazarin screamed as he took a short knife from his robes to personally attack Naruto.

"No!" Mi growled as she rapidly readied her bow and arrow.

 _ **BANG!**_ In a surprise attack a bullet came down raining from the sky hitting the side of Mazarin's head turning the upper half of it in a burned stump.

"What the..." Naruto muttered with wide eyes as the still charging corpse of the Cardinal stumbled on its steps to fall forward to silently pour blood in front of the Hobgoblin.

"ENEMY ATTACK! ENEMY ATT- _ **BANG!**_ " Another soldier tried saying before a giant hole opened on his chest with enough heat to let only sparks and ashes fly outside the gaping wound while the strength behind the bullet sent the body flying forward.

"Another friend of yours?" the Captain asked growling as other two soldiers of his company fell to the roaring bullets that kept raining on them.

"No! I have nothing to do with this!" Naruto answered as he had to thank his [ _ **Danger Perception**_ ] Skill if he managed to tackle Albedo to the ground before she too could get beheaded by the unseen attacker.

"Thank you." the Succubus said uneasy.

"Wait until this new problem is gone before thanking me." the former shinobi replied as Mazarin's Barrier finally gave in under the continuous rain of bullets.

"Oh Lord! Thine Word is sacred..." a new voice, very young and lisping, was heard echoing from the sky.

"Damn it! This must be a _**[Flying Mage**_ ] from Barad-se!" the Captain hissed making his men regroup in a tight defensive formation.

"Oh Lord! Thine Love is boundless..." the voice kept praying as a young girl, by the looks of it barely eleven, with pale skin and gold-blond hair slowly descended until the others could finally see her face.

"A Flying Mage?" Naruto asked confused.

"Just because we are in an ' _Enemy Mine'_ situation...Barad-se its famous for using Technology and Magic together, a prime example of it is their Flying Mage Squadrons: highly mobile, powerful Mages whose pendants can amplify their Magic and Spells even better than normal focuses and give them the ability to fly at high speed...But I have never seen one that complex-looking." the Captain answered pointing at the medallion the young girl was wearing, it was a circle of three angelic wings ' _hugging'_ a transparent pendant encasing a red gem pulsating in power and emanating a strong red light.

"Oh Lord, forgive thine children as they believe in false gods! Show them the might of the true Lord and make their souls rejoice in your Holy Light!" the girl said as her body gained an unnatural bright aura giving her a very _divine_ look.

" **I don't know what the fuck she is talking about...But I don't like how that pendant of hers is throwing around Mana!** " Kurama said growling as fire started dancing around the girl's whole body.

"In the name of the Lord! In the Name of Barad-se! I shall pray to God, and use His power to defeat Evil! BEGONE!" the flying mage said solemnly as a giant explosion of fire engulfed everything in an awe-inspiring pillar of flames that simply _erased_ the remaining soldiers.

" **[Negative Burst]!"** Naruto yelled with wide eyes.

" **[Aura of Valor]!"** the Captain added summoning around himself, Naruto and the girls a bright blue aura.

" **[Defense Boost]!"** Alice intoned summoning a clear bubble of energy around herself and the others.

" **[Walls of Jericho]!"** Albedo yelled making a tall whole of black rocks sprout from the ground in front of the group.

Their group effort to raise their defense as much as they could came barely in time as the pillar of fire lightly brushed against them, turning everything to dust and even lightly cracking Naruto's **[Negative Burst]** defensive dome.

"You are lucky that I need the Echidna girl alive, or I would have made sure to kill you. Surrender the Princess and I will respect the human rights chart established by the Great Crowns, refuse and I will exterminate whoever opposes me." the girl asked with a chilling smile as her eye turned from blue to gold under the flux of Mana from her Orb.

"The Princess?!" Naruto and the Captain said at the same time while Alice cringed.

"Nice to meet you...I am Alipheese Fateburn XVI, daughter of King Leodas and Queen Alipheese Fateburn XV and Princess of Devan...But you can call me Alice." the Echidna admitted as she took away her hood to show her face.

"Oooh, Fuck!" Naruto cursed loudly.

"I find myself agreeing," the Captain answered.

"I have orders to take the Princess to Barad-se and kill every witnesses, I am sorry." the flying mage said preparing her riffle and pointing it straight at Naruto's head.

"Then I won't let you do it!" the former shinobi answered furious.

"Bring it." the girl answered coldly.

 **AAAAND STOP! Third chapter done, next time the battle against the mysterious flying mage and much more!**

 **I am creating a side story, it will contain every Spell/Skill/Job I use here and explain it in detail, like that I won't make the chapters longer. It will be the "Info Dump" of this story.**

 **You all choose Demon Queen Alice from "Monster Girl Quest" as the third girl...It will be harder than Jibril to add to the story, but I promised to let you choose so I will follow through.**

 **Alice won't be a queen though, I remember you that she is the daughter of King Leodas...so at best she is ' _Princess Alice'_ in here...her appearances are still the same though ^ ^.**

 **So? Did you recognize who is the mysterious soldier that is attacking Naruto and the girls? Let's recap:**

 **Porcelain skin.**

 **Blond hair.**

 **Doll-like constitution.**

 **Rank "Mage Second Lieutenant". Then "First Lieutenant"**

 **Uses a medallion called " _Elen_ _i_ _um Type 95"_ _(I am using its appearances from the Manga, it looks cooler in the manga)._**

 **Her battle names are "Mithril", "Argent", "Pure Silver", "Devil of the Rhine".**

 **Talks with a lisp.**

 **Has a lot of issues with what she refers as " _So-called '_ Gods'" and " _Being X"_ that always meddle in her life.**

 **She starts reciting prayers the more power she uses for her spells.**

 **She flies and ' _shots'_ Magic through a musket riffle.**

 **...No bells ring? A pity, I like the Novels, Manga and soon will watch the Anime so she stays! XD**

 **(And I started reading the novel when it wasn't ' _famous'_ yet, so I am not jumping on the wagon, _I WAS ALREADY ON IT WHEN IT STARTED_!)**


	4. Chapter 4

**So you guessed right! Dear missus Tanya Von Degurechaff will be the future member of Naruto's guild, not NOW, now her '** _ **joining'**_ **of the group won't be exactly her own choice, but she will come around XD.**

 **To be clear: I "** _ **Estimated**_ **" the Level of Power "End-of-Manga Naruto" has and tried directly translating that into "** _ **RPG**_ _ **Numbers"**_ **and "** _ **Stats"**_ **, and he WILL improve further as the story progresses.**

 **At the moment** **Naruto** **has just evolved into a** Hobgoblin **, a Super-rare '** _ **Variation'**_ **of one to be precise.**

 **P** **airing:** **Naru/** **Mi (From** _ **Re: Monster**_ **) / Albedo (from** _ **Overlord)**_ **and third (AND LAST):** _ **Demon Queen Alice (from Monster Girl Quest)**_ **here** _ **"Princess Alice"**_ _ **.**_

 **Sister figures:** Jibril _ **(from no game no life)**_ **and** Mana **(Who is she? But Dark Magician Girl from Yu-gi-oh of course!)** **and** **another right guess, Shantae: half-genie, Total badass.**

 **I** **changed** **Demon Queen** **Alice and** **Albedo's back-story to fit my** **fanfic** **. Like that, just because** _ **I can**_ **.**

" **You bastard"** \- demon talking / jutsu

"Let's finish this" - dialogue

" _Can it get any worse?_ " - during flashback/thoughts

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or whatever I will use here in this fic.**

 **A certain blond in an RPG World Chap 4: When somebody that is not a ' _Chosen One'_ is forced to join the scene you shouldn't immediately think the intruder is the culprit, sometimes the culprit is who forced-in the intruder!**

 **Road to Serena City – burned patch of forest -**

The group was silently watching as the blond loli soldier kept hovering ten feet above them with her _Magi-Riffle_ pointing directly in the area between Naruto's eyes without even the smallest shaking of her tiny hands, even if the weapon had been not modified to be wielded by a kid like her but left " _adult sized"_.

"Why do you want the Princess?" the reborn shinobi asked with narrowed eyes.

"Direct orders, they ask and I simply deliver what they want where they want. But I guess there will be no better leverage than having the ruling king's beloved daughter as hostage to be sure what we want in Barad-se will be heard." the girl answered with a chilling smile.

" _And assure me a straight-vertical raise in prestige and importance! Showing great productivity and rapidly deliver the desired results to the people in charge is the first step towards success! In the Army like in any office!"_ she mentally added to herself.

"I saw bold moves before, but this is out-right a declaration of war! Have you people any idea what you are doing!? And how did you know she was even out of the Castle?...Just how far in are your spies?" the Captain of the Church guards (the only survivor of his whole group) hissed angrily in answer.

"I am just following orders, but if we can act so openly to get the Princess, wouldn't that mean we do want Devan's attention? Even through war between the two of us?" the girl answered shrugging disinterested.

"And you think the other Crowns won't act as well?" Naruto asked.

"You do not know how things work, do you? The _Crowns_ hate each other! The whole _Status-quo_ they bring is one where nobody is stronger than the others, not one based on Peace! If one of them gets removed the others rejoice as it will mean they'll have one less neighbor to worry about. We just want to have our might recognized, if we do not step on other feet except Devan's, the others will happily look elsewhere until we are done and simply keep track of the winner, ready to pounce and give the finishing blow if the winner does not stay put until they recover." she answered chuckling.

" **Nobody would intervene** **in the '** _ **War**_ **' between Barad-se and Devan** **in fear of** **themselves** **being weakened enough for yet another to pounce** **and start a World War** **, it's so much like home it's actually sickening.** " Kurama commented bitterly.

"I remember you... _Devil of the Rhine_." the Captain said looking sick at his own memories.

"And I remember you, _Thundering Spear_." the kid hissed in answer.

"Old acquaintance of yours?" Albedo asked as her hands closed tightly around her weapon until the knuckles turned white.

"She is Second Lieutenant Tanya Von Degurechaff of the ' _Red Valkyrie'_ Flight Mages Squadron of Barad-se, she is also the one that took away my eye last time we met in retaliation of my taking away her liver. I still curse that Magic shield of hers for deflecting my attack." he answered growling while passing a finger on his eye-patch.

"I was promoted to First Lieutenant after that battle, Captain Lars Bluelette! And it has been a pain having an artificial liver being sewed in place of my old one, so feel satisfied with this tiny result as I was by taking your eye away." Tanya answered sneering.

"So do you have any suggestion to give me about fighting her?" Naruto whispered without moving away his eyes from her.

"Normally the area right above the medallion is where the Magic Shield she can summon is the more _unstable_ as it's where it comes from and where it still has to stabilize into a proper defense, but last time it still resisted my strongest attack when we fought, and even if I pierced her barrier my spear still got deflected by the flow of Magic away from her heart, so it won't be easy to break through it...What's worse is that this medallion looks way more powerful than the one she was using that time, so I have no idea how much more power you will need to break it down now." Lars answered still glaring at the girl.

"Anything else?"

"Damn good accuracy, she hardly stands in the same place and if threatened she charges forward at high speed to use her _**Mage Blade**_ for close combat, and she is just too damn tiny to easily follow her, meaning that if you lose track of her, you are dead. She seems to have gained a very powerful Fire Affinity and she is still not afraid of collateral damages. I can offer some cover but unless we _**force her down**_ and stop her from flying away, we won't have much to work with or any chance to defeat her." the Captain answered.

"Capture or kill?" the reborn shinobi asked.

"...Capture, we'll bring her to my father so we will have her told us what she knows about Barad-se." Alice answered.

"If we manage to, I think we should kill her instead, just in case." Albedo added.

"I'll go for capture first then, I still feel uneasy about killing a kid." Naruto answered as a bullet drilled a sizable hole next to his feet.

"I suggest you to forget I am a kid and ignore the issue, otherwise this fight won't last long." Tanya answered aiming back at the hobgoblin's head.

"Make room." Naruto muttered as Lars, Albedo and Alice moved slightly back while dragging Mi with them by force.

"I help!" the young goblin girl said in distress only to have her mouth covered by Olaf's hand.

"You help by shooting arrows, but not with that, with this." Olaf whispered taking from behind himself a heavy-looking and complex-built crossbow.

"The arrows are extremely-powerful explosives and the recoil enough to break an adult human man's shoulder, be careful and give it back to me, I feel naked without it." the dwarf explained as Mi struggled a little to cork a dart back once reloaded the weapon.

"Mi will be good." the girl answered nodding.

"Me and you will help him with arrows, we need to not be seen by Tanya as we take position." Lars muttered taking from one of his dead men a giant great-bow seemingly made of stone almost as tall as he was.

"...I'll use it well, Jeffrey. Then I will be sure your father will get your family heirloom [ _Medusa Great Bow_ ] back. It's a promise." the Captain muttered to the young dead soldier.

"Follow me." he then ordered to Mi as he hurried away.

"Be careful." Mi muttered surprising Naruto by kissing his cheek before following Lars away.

"Albedo?" Naruto asked.

"Yes?"

"Can you do that wall trick again? To protect the merchants."

"I don't know how much it will last against her bullets...But yes. [ _ **Walls of Jericho**_ ]!" the succubus answered as the tall wall of black rocks sprout from underground right in front of Olaf's convoy to protect them.

"Thank you." the reborn shinobi answered with a grateful tone and gasping when he felt himself become lighter.

"[ _ **Quick Step**_ ]" Alice intoned as the cyan-coloured aura around Naruto died-down.

"It will make you move slightly faster." the Echidna Princess explained.

"Thank you!" the Hobgoblin answered as he dodged just in time the first bullet aimed at his head as he ran towards the flying mage at high speed.

"That spell did wonders." Albedo said pleased.

"...That was not me…At my level it only increases of a 10% the target's speed...that is mostly him." Alice answered faintly.

"Oh." the other muttered in mild surprise.

"[ _ **Body of Effulgent Beryl**_ ]!" the buff made the madly dodging Hobgoblin shine briefly in emerald light.

"Albedo?" Alice muttered in surprise.

"I may not know many buffing spells as YOU are the Healer/buffer between us, but raising his evasiveness should still suffice." the succubus answered with a small smile.

"Then...Together?" Alice said plunging her staff on the ground in front of herself.

"Together." Albedo answered smirking.

"[ _ **Bless of Magic Caster**_ ]"

"[ _ **Infinity Wall**_ ]"

"[ _ **Magic Ward, Fire**_ ]"

"[ _ **Life Essence**_ ]"

"[ _ **Greater Full Potential**_ ]"

"[ _ **Freedom**_ ]"

"[ _ **False Data, MP**_ ]"

"[ _ **See Through**_ ]"

Both girls intoned a buff each making various auras of different colors and patterns flash around Naruto's body, making his movements faster, his dodging nimbler, his physical attacks more accurate, his spells cover a wider area and his counter-attacks and spells hit harder rattling the translucent dome of golden light around Tanya's body making it ripple harder at each hit, even making her own shots miss because of the rare after-images the Hobgoblin could leave behind once every several dodges.

"[ _ **Paranormal Intuition**_ ]" from Olaf's cart a shy voice intoned.

"Thea?" Olaf asked in surprise.

"It will help him see when she is about to attack." the young mage answered with a tiny smile.

"Good girl." the Dwarf answered proud.

"[ _ **Greater Resistance**_ ]...He is not your friend only, guys." Shin added smirking.

"[ _ **Mantle of Chaos**_ ]" Albedo said, by now falling on her knees because low on MP.

"[ _ **Indomitability**_ ]" Alice intoned with shaking voice as she clung to her staff to stay upright, she too magically exhausted.

" _ **[Sensor Boost] [Greater Luck] [Magic Boost] [Dragonic Power]...**_ I learned those just to defeat you, Degurechaff, I will have my revenge today." Lars muttered from his hiding spot as he cast the same buffs on himself and then Naruto.

"[ _ **Greater Hardening**_ ]" Shin muttered with heavy beads of sweat falling from his forehead.

"[ _ **Heavenly Aura**_ ]" Thea added before gasping for air in fatigue.

 **With Naruto -**

" **HOLY SHIT!** " Kurama gasped in shock as the buffs kept piling-up.

[ _ **Absorption**_ ] [ _ **Penetrate Up**_ ] [ _ **Greater Magic Shield**_ ] [ _ **Mana Essence**_ ]

" _Is that_ _why_ _I feel like I am about to catch fire?"_ Naruto asked as he could somehow tell where some of the bullets would fly towards and dodge them even BEFORE they could actually leave the front of Tanya's musket.

" **They are buffing the shit out of you, we'll have a lot of people to thank once done here, now focus and capture this loli psycho bitch!"** the Fox turned Blessing answered as the flow of buffs finally died-down as the casters were too tired to use more.

" _I got it!_ " Naruto answered as he jumped high towards Tanya.

" **[Graviga]**!" the Hobgoblin intoned forcing the young kid to once again lose altitude for him to reach and attack.

 **With Tanya -**

" _Warning! Warning! Warning! Attack incoming!_ " the metallic voice of the pendant rang inside the girl's head.

"I KNOW I KNOW!" she roared as she flew back at high speed making the short sword the shinobi was using scratch against the outer layer of her barrier.

"DIE!" She yelled as she readied her riffle and shooting in less than a second, sacrificing accuracy just to shot him back in a shorter time.

 _CRACKLE!_ The bullet went intercepted by the sword's blade that got broken to thousands of pieces by the Magic-Empowered bullet that only lightly grazed the Hobgoblin's cheek.

"Damn you! Since when people help Hobgoblins? And since when they are this good at fightin- _ **BOOOOM**_ **!** _"_ Tanya's question went cut short when two arrows hit her shield causing twin powerful explosions and engulfing her in a thick cloud of smoke making her lose track of Naruto.

 **With Mi -**

"Whenever you see him at that distance from Degurechaff you can attack, be quick and aim for her pendant. Got it?!" Lars instructed as he corked back a new arrow in the great bow.

"Mi gets it!" Mi answered as she reloaded the crossbow to shot a new explosive dart at Tanya as soon as the smoke cleared gaining a muffled and short shriek of surprise from the child soldier.

"Good! Follow me, a good archer moves a lot when hiding." the Captain said with a pleased nod as the two changed zone as bullets started blindly falling around them.

 **Back with Naruto -**

The reborn shinobi was running and tree-jumping at top speed with Tanya doing her best to keep up with him while at the same time shooting him, having been forced to fly low as the trees were making aiming difficult from above them.

"Why can't I detect him normally unless I fly down? Why is he that good at hiding?! What skill is that, even?!" the loli soldier hissed furious as her target kept giving the middle finger to the laws of physics _(even more than the new world she had found herself in already was_ _doing_ _normally)_ by jumping from a tree branch to the other while _**upside-down**_ as if gravity was just something someone could simply decide to not be bothered with.

" _Skill detected [_ _ **Tree-walking**_ _]._ " her medallion answered dully as Naruto seemingly disappeared behind a tree nowhere to be seen, forcing Tanya to drop even lower in altitude, all for her ire.

"Give me more info, dammit!" the young kid growled as she scanned her surroundings and snapping her head towards every noise coming from all around her.

" _Error, no Skill [Tree-walking]_ _found_ _in memory. Do you wish to register_ _the newly-discovered_ _skill?_ "

"So it's one we didn't know about up until now...Tch! Record everything, may as well be ready should I meet it again once done here." Tanya ordered as the snapping of a tree branch made her turn around.

"OVER HERE!" Naruto screamed from behind her as his punch bounced away from the girl's barrier, although making it deform heavily on impact.

"GAH!" Tanya yelled in surprise as she spun around to let loose a thick spray of flames.

"[ **Fire Burst** ]!" she yelled making her riffle act as a flamethrower for a couple of seconds.

"Where is he?" she muttered to herself as once the fire disappeared the hobgoblin was once again nowhere to be seen.

"This thing has a stealth stat too high to be normal...To hell with this! **[Magi Scan** ]!" Tanya ordered with narrowed eyes as her barrier went covered by circles of runes helping her eyes scan in great detail the woods around herself.

"NOW!" Lars screamed as he and Mi shoot a new duo of arrows at the same time while aiming at her face.

 _ **WHAAAAAAAAAM!**_ Instead of exploding though the two projectiles produced a blinding light and an ear-piercing explosion of sound upon impact with the golden dome of light surrounding Tanya.

"KYAAAH!" the child soldier shrieked while covering her face with her hands as the augmented sensibility of her eyes reacted badly with those [ _ **Stunning Arrows** ] _making her almost turn blind _._

"GO GET HER, NARUTO!" the Captain ordered while he and the goblin girl moved away stealthily.

"DIE! DIE! DIE!" growling madly Tanya managed to crack open one of her heavily-tearing eyes to take aim in the general direction of the two archers.

"Target locked-on!" she cackled madly as she barely saw Mi's silhouette being highlighted by the targeting assisting ability of her locket.

 _Clang-BANG!_ Just as she was pulling the trigger Naruto's broken sword went thrown towards Tanya with ludicrous force to hit the muzzle of her riffle, moving the weapon aside so that the bullet could tear in half a tree instead of catching Mi's head.

"YOU!" the young girl hissed furious as her sight finally recovered enough to see the approaching Naruto.

"Focus on me! You damn brat!" the Hobgoblin yelled as a throwing knife of his bounced away from Tanya's shield.

"AH!" moving fast the girl covered her hand in a thick flame-like aura to slash horizontally and behead Naruto in an instant, only to see a small log appear in his place to be cut in half in his place.

"WHAT THE?! A LOG?!" she yelled with wide eyes.

" _Warning! Unknown Skill!"_

"A little _**Substitution**_ pulled-out at the last moment, it's the basics." Naruto answered smirking as he jumped on a near tree so to match Tanya's position and lock eyes with her.

"A Substitution...You switched place with a log to dodge my _**[Mage Blade]**_..." she muttered growling.

"I pulled a fast one, yes."

"Compared to any other Hobgoblin you are too fast, too strong, too different...There are too many variables here. You are not a normal Hobgoblin, your skin colour should have been a clear signal you were not the usual monster I am used to see, but you are exceeding even the wildest variations I saw and studied up until now..." Tanya said as the two stood looking at each other in the eyes each trying to drill a hole in the other's head through their glare.

"I see no other solution here. [ **Libra** ]." the girl ordered making a red highlight surround Naruto's body from her point of view.

" **She is trying to Appraise us!** " Kurama warned him.

"She is distracted then! NOW!" the Hobgoblin ordered making five shadows rain on Tanya from behind her.

"W-What the-[ **Fire Burst]!** " acting quickly at the unseen menace the young girl spun around and turned to ashes the incoming attack her medallion warned her about with a short burst of flames.

Unfortunately doing this meant leaving her back defenseless, a thing Naruto took advantage of as he decided to try using a whole ( _albeit pretty small_ ) tree as a club to hit her, shooting her out of the patch of trees still unharmed thanks to her Barrier but still shaken from the surprise attack as she crash landed a dozen or so feet away before she could react and gain altitude.

"A damn tree?! How?!" she hissed confused as she saw the broken stump still held in both arms of Naruto he then left fall to the ground with a dull _**Wham!**_ Sound.

"So cutting and blunt force are useless against your defensive spell. Okay! Time to see if Dad's masterpiece can drill a hole in that barrier of yours then!" the reborn shinobi said smirking savagely.

" **The Medallion she uses summons the shield by itself, so taking her by surprise too won't work, that thing** **h** **as a proximity sense** **too** **damn sharp for you to fool yet, so yes, we'll have to break through it.** " Kurama confirmed growling.

" _Danger! Danger! Mana Levels reaching critical levels! Continue use of [_ _ **Barrier Defense**_ _] requires extra MP to compensate enemy attack if surpassing normal damage threshold of the Barrier, do you wish to keep setting_ _on_ _'_ Automatic'?" the pendant asked.

"YES! YES! I am not going to let a Hobgoblin kill me! Now give me the damn results of the Appraisal!" Tanya muttered with a low voice to her pendant as the progress bar of her Appraisal finally filled completely.

" _Danger! Danger! [_ _ **Libra**_ _]_ _Spell results ready._ _Enemy stats exceeding Hobgoblin Species standards_ _by...A lot_ _!_ _"_ the mental echo of the pendant said just as Naruto started his charge, running in a straight line towards her without even trying to avoid her bullets but barely moving left and right to dodge her salvos until one finally managed to pierce through his head.

"Display." Tanya ordered before yelping in surprise since the Hobgoblin she had just shot through the head decided to burst into smoke.

"WHAT?! HOW?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW!?"

" **Rasengan!** " the same voice of the disappeared monster rang behind her giving her barely enough time to turn around and quickly raise her shield once again.

 _ **SKRIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEH!**_

The sound was LOUD, making the ones too close cover their ears in agony as the blue sphere of chakra impacted with Tanya's golden barrier in an explosion of light soon followed by a humongous cascade of sparks as Naruto kept trying to drill a hole through the magical defense.

"AAAARGH!" the young girl yelled in anger as the sound was literally making her ears bleed as she felt something faintly drip down from them.

" _DANGER! DANGER!_ _MANA LEVELS BELOW 10%!_ _DANGER!_ _DA-DA-DA-DA-DANGER!_ _"_ unknown to her the glass case of her medallion had just gained an _X_ -shaped crack as thin as a single human hair, but with her focus on stopping the attack from hitting her she could not differentiate that specific warning of the medallion from any other she had been hearing since the beginning of the fight.

" _ **Libra**_ _result ready! Displaying: Named Monster..._ " Tanya finally saw a copy of the same Appraisal of Naruto the others saw thanks to Cardinal Mazarin, making her eyes go wide at the absurd stats the Hobgoblin possessed.

"[ _ **Teleport**_ **]!** [ _ **Teleport**_ **]!** " the girl ordered in shock as cracks started appearing on the dome making her body fade away to reappear few feet away.

"[ _ **Teleport**_ **]: [High-tier support Magic, it moves the Target away from** **any** **attack to aid evasion.] It costs a shit-load of MP compared to how far it can move yourself or the Target, but in this case it saved her life.** " Kurama explained as a new duo of explosive arrows covered Naruto's landing back on the ground.

"Tch!" the reborn shinobi hissed angrily.

" _Wa-wa-warning! Ma_ _-Ma_ _na levels are at 5%! Suggestion: C_ _-C_ _ease fighting to avoid lost of con_ _-con_ _sciousness from MP de_ _-de-de-de_ _pletion!"_ The Medallion transmitted with a tone ravaged by statics Tanya unconsciously ignored in favor of glaring at Naruto in pure hatred.

"Who are you!? WHAT ARE YOU?! You can't be a fucking Hobgoblin! WHO ARE YOU!?" Tanya yelled furious.

" _ **You are about to die, child! Remember that**_ _ **should**_ _ **your death**_ _ **being not a natural one or happen before your Redemption, then your soul will**_ _ **cease to exist!**_ _ **Though**_ _ **should you repent and accept God's gift**_ _ **and**_ _ **Blessing**_ _ **your soul**_ _ **will**_ _ **instead**_ _ **be saved! So pray! Pray and teach to these children to not believe in false gods but accept the true Faith you have been chosen to champion!**_ " A thundering voice boomed inside Tanya's head making her grit her teeth at the smug smile she simply KNEW was on ' _Being X'_ face as he said that.

" _ME? Praying to YOU!?_ _ **NEVER!**_ _"_ the girl thought in blind fury as she snarled in the general direction of Mi and Lars.

"I am Naruto Namikaze, future greatest Mercenary ever! And the one that is going to kick your ass for attacking my friends." Naruto answered moving a fist in front of himself with a confidant smile and tone.

"Friends?" Albedo asked amused.

"Fuck yes, you are! I just decided so!" he answered smirking and making her and Alice chuckle.

"At least this mess was not for nothing then! We apparently got ourselves a friend." the Princess commented laughing.

"You..." Tanya hissed furious as while the two girls were smiling in hope for the results of the ongoing battle, the child soldier was instead seething in barely-controlled rage.

" _My future! My perfect score in the Army! The wonderful career that will take me away from the front-lines!_ _ALL IN RUINS! EVERYTHING I WORKED SO HARD TO ACHIEVE CRUMBLING TO DUST!_ **ALL BECAUSE OF HIM!** _"_ the girl's brain almost came undone out of her blind rage as she finally acknowledged the _HUGE_ obstacle between herself and her completing her Mission with a perfect ' _Score'_ she knew would have been the next step towards a job far from the battlefield like she had planned.

" _ **Pray and atone for your sins, child! Accept thy Lord blessing and spread the words of the True God!**_ " her own mental health was also not helped by Being X deciding to further nag her to use the full power of the pendant she knew HE helped Barad-se develop as a _**'Miracle'**_ of sort and that HE made sure only Tanya could use.

"Degurechaff!" Lars yelled as he boldly walked out of his hiding spot to openly aim at her head with his bow.

" **Pray and Believe, Child!"** Being X added.

"You can't win, surrender!" Alice ordered.

"It's over, Tanya-san." Naruto said with a calm tone.

"SILENCE!"

"It's over?...Surrender?...PRAY?! _**ENOUGH**_!" Tanya screamed with bestial fury as she moved her riffle towards Albedo and Alice.

"DIE!" Tanya yelled as a circle of golden light appeared in front of her riffle and then dividing into four.

" _ **[Quad-Shot]! [Magic Bullet, Fire]! [Magi Mine]!**_ " the girl intoned with a deranged smile making the four magic circles turn into fire-made versions of themselves.

" **She is going to shoot them with four wide-area fire bombs!** " Kurama said with wide eyes.

" _Warning! Mana Levels too low for-"_

"SHUT UP! _"_ the girl bellowed angrily.

"ALICE!" Albedo yelled as she moved to shield her friend with her body.

"KYAAAAAH!"

"STOOOP! [ **Graviga]!** " Naruto yelled as he tried to pull her down using the gravitational spell.

"GOT YOU!" Tanya answered with a diabolic smile at seeing her ruse work, without resisting the pull she left the spell drag her down while turning around to aim at Naruto's body, pulling the trigger once gently shoved the tip of her riffle on his chest before she could get slammed on the floor.

 _ **KRATABOOOOOM!**_ The explosion of the four powerful fire spells being shot at the same time engulfed a wide area in a dense sea of flames soon forming a small mushroom cloud.

"NARUTOOOOOO!" Mi's scream of anguish cut through earth and sky as she ran out of her hiding spot to see if her beloved friend somehow survived the point-blank attack.

" _Wa-wa-wa-warning...Mana Levels...1%..."_ The Pendant, now showing deeper and more numerous cracks on the frontal glass panel thanks the explosion backlash, warned weakly.

"One down, three still to go." Tanya, slightly panting in Magic exhaustion, muttered pleased as she looked at the goblin girl with a maniacal grin lacking any form of mercy.

"You die now." Mi growled as she aimed the crossbow between the girl's eyes.

"How cute...Oh?" Tanya answered smirking as she raised her Magical Barrier a last time and moved to take aim and shoot Mi, only for her riffle to not bulge of a millimeter.

"...I got you." the voice had her eyes fly wide open in abject horror, because as soon as the smoke finished dissipating she saw a dark-grey hand holding her riffle by the muzzle soon followed by a heavily-burned arm and then the rest of the Hobgoblin she thought she had vaporized.

"Between Thermal Fluctuation, my own Fire Resistance and the others' buffs, I managed to cut the damages down a lot...But for fuck sake it still hurts." Naruto said panting as half his face was covered in blood forcing his right eye closed while most of his clothes had been burden away showing some serious burning marks covering the majority of his body.

But the worst part, for Tanya, was that his hand holding the riffle was _**INSIDE**_ her Barrier because of his holding her weapon when she did cast it, meaning that he could ideally drag the rest of his body inside her Barrier if he so wished…

And he did.

"YAAAH!" the right punch of the Hobgoblin (subconsciously pumped to maximum attack power thanks to his [ **Vigor]** Skill) slammed on Tanya's face fully and with the same power and ' _weight'_ of a speeding truck momentarily flattening her skull, making her eyes roll up on the back of her head and dislodging several of her teeth in a thick spurt of blood as her tiny body went shot far away in an unintended fly while her riffle remained in his hand.

"No more shooting for you." Naruto growled as he threw the musket aside just as Tanya shakily rose to her feet.

"I-I-I am not done yet!" the girl answered panting as she took out a small gun from a hidden holster on her left leg.

"The accuracy of this gun is abysmal and the damage dealt simply disgusting, but it's always better than fighting barehanded..." Tanya muttered in disdain as she tried to fly again only for her to drop down after rising of barely few centimeters from the ground.

"W-W-What?"

"D-D-D-D-GER!… _F-F-FL-Flight abilities are not work-work-work-work-work-"_

"Just work, you piece of junk!" the girl yelled punching the front of her medallion adding more cracks to the ones already covering the glass case almost completely.

"IT'S OVER! [ **OODAMA RASENGAN]!** " Naruto yelled as he and a Shadow Clone ran towards Tanya while holding between them a Rasengan the size of beach-ball.

"NO! NO! STAY AWAY!" Unable to simply fly away the child soldier raised her gun to shoot him, only for Lars' final arrow finally piercing her shoulder turning weapon and arm to stone.

"Here! The secret ability of the [ _Medusa Great Bow_ ], [ _ **Petrifying Arrow]!**_ " the Captain said with a vindicated tone.

"AAAH!" with a short scream the two Narutos reached their target and shoved the huge Rasengan right on Tanya's chest.

"GYAAAAAAAAAAH!" the scream of agony was blood-curling, but it lasted for barely few seconds before the glass panel of her medallion finally gave-in and shattered.

" _DANGER! MANA LEVELS AT 0%! Err-"_ _ **Crack!**_

 _ **BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

The explosion was terrifying, blowing away everything on its path and sending the observing party fly away and even upturning Olaf's cart and the rest of his convoy.

When the smoke finally settled a hole so deep the bottom could not be seen was left in the epicenter of the explosion thanks to the uncontrolled Magic of Tanya's broken pendant lashing around wildly, leaving the group of shaken survivors desperately looking everywhere for both Tanya and Naruto that had been shot away and high in the sky, nowhere to be seen.

 **Somewhere – time and position unknown -**

When Tanya Von Degurechaff finally opened her eyes she found herself in a familiar position, frozen in place in the middle of a fall, only this time she was surrounded by complete whiteness and her body and soul hurting to the point she couldn't even scream.

" **I see that you are awake.** " a gentle voice asked with otherworldly calm.

"...Being X..." Tanya exhaled tiredly, but still managing to convey her hatred.

" **No, that** _ **Interloper**_ **has not arrived yet...Daichi Takamura.** " the voice answered conversationally making Tanya's eye widen in surprise.

" **It has been a while since you heard your name from your previous life, doesn't it?** "

"Who are you?" the girl finally asked.

" **I guess introductions are in order. I am Ifrion, and the stone your are wearing in your pendant happens to be the Heart of** _ **Pyros**_ **, the Guardian of Fire, and more importantly, one of my children."** Ifrion answered as he appeared in front of Tanya.

Ifrion was a titanic Phoenix easily as tall as a skyscraper if not even bigger, dark-red plumage with gold lining, a long tail of pure fire on his back and extremely-long talons looking like being even too sharp for the girl's comfort; contrary to normal mythology she was used to though, Ifrion possessed four wings.

His feathers looked metallic in appearances and his beak and head were lacking the proper opening for a _mouth_ , being instead a solid block of metal decorated with spiral patterns making the whole ensemble looking like an iron mask with flaming red eyes.

"So you are here for revenge?" Tanya asked sounding almost resigned.

" **None of that,** **to be Honest I am her** **e** **to make you an offer.** **I** **have been** **observing you ever since your '** _ **Being X'**_ **forcefully annexed** **you** **to our world...** **And t** **o be sure you understand why I am here...Let's say that I am part of an E** **xecutive recruitment agency that** **is tracking** **qualified personnel during their work life, and can quickly and precisely locate a suitable candidate for a specific job requirement...My partners Varudora and Malvas have found their candidates, now it's your turn."** the Titan answered amused.

"So you are a Head-Hunter?" She asked with a weak smile.

" **Pretty much. As for now I can't openly trust you with my Core as me and Malvas are the only ones holding the Seal intact and working since we need Varudora awake, but I can trust you with my child's Core to aid you. Should I give you my blessing you won't need Interlopers' '** _ **Miracles'**_ **for it to work. This if you promise to not abuse it."** Ifrion answered spatting _Miracles_ like something tasting bitter in his mouth.

"And why should I switch a Megalomaniac for another? You too believe to be a God?" Tanya asked sarcastic.

" **If I was a real God, I would really help my beloved children and the people of Elrune. Me and my brothers are at best Martyrs, condemned to endless sleep and cursed with powerlessness in truly fixing a mistake protracting for centuries unresolved. Contrary to your** _ **Being X,**_ **me and the others used to listen to the prayers and intervene, people never had doubts about our existence because we actually '** _ **Managed'**_ **our world instead of sitting aside and simply watch."**

"Eh! That already sounds like you are a bit better than X..." the girl replied unconvinced.

" **I am honestly unsure if I should take that as a compliment or not.** **Then, what about this: You help me and my brothers...And I will personally see to it that neither** _ **Being X**_ **or** **his cohorts will ever bother you, they will be gone,** _ **Forever**_ **. This and personally making sure you will have a very peaceful life ahead of you to live as you wish...This if you do not turn into the next Dark Lord,** **because if you do then** **I will personally hunt you down and burn even your soul to ashes and erase you** **completely** **."**

"It doesn't sound different from the deal I already have ongoing with my current employer."

" **You sure? I am not forcing you to pray for us or Mother Elrune like** _ **someone else**_ **has openly done more than once ever since you came here! And neither I am forcing you to accept my offer. I am merely taking few minutes of your time to inform you there would be a nice cozy place open for you.** "

"..."

"... **So?"**

"You are holding information back," Tanya said managing a smirk.

" **Hohoho! Guilty as charged** " Ifrion admitted with his voice turning way darker as he leaned forward his giant head (that alone ten times the size of Tanya's whole body) until the tip of his beak lightly touched her chest.

" **Your Being X was not very clever in choosing our world to put you into, there are things in motion he failed to notice...Like MANY OTHERS he missed in his own world if I saw your memories well...** " the giant phoenix whispered with a low voice carrying dark omens.

"Such as?" she asked with just a smudge of uncertainty in her tone.

" **The man that is hunting us down for the cores of me and my two brothers, along the ones of our children, has way darker plans than what even his men know about. Plans that will spell doom for** _ **everything**_ **around us. I would like to tell you you have no choice in helping us but it is not my style to force people to do my bidding. But if your precious Barad-Se manages to fulfill your King's ambition, EVERYTHING will cease to exist. Even Heaven and Hell."**

"Eh?" Tanya asked with her eyes going slightly wide.

" **Why do you think me, Malvas and Varudora used to sleep? Why you think the '** _ **Lesser Titans'**_ **never let themselves be awakened? Our dreams are unified, our sleep creates the prison of a being of Destruction! Should all of us awake, or worse die, the fake world that** _ **Shadow**_ **eternally feeds on will disappear and that Monster will be free to devour this world, then the next one, then the next one...And when there will be nothing else in the material world to eat, it will move its eyes elsewhere, like the world of spirits...And neither gods of devils can escape its hunger."**

"So even if I manage to win my ' _bet'_ with Being X...I will lose all the same?" Tanya asked.

" **It would be just a temporary victory, Miss Tanya. Sooner or later the Shadow would reach the Heavens and consume everything there as well, that if your X will manage to force you to go there, he has no power in our world no matter if his ego makes him believe to be some '** _ **True God'**_ **and so Omnipotent. No amount of stolen prayers will make him usurp the gods already in power here, they are not the kind to let the first coming by steal their job."** Ifrion answered.

"And considering you seem to actually do a better job than what he was doing in my world, I wouldn't blame them."

" **Thank you, we don't consider ourselves Gods...More like ' _Employers'_ of our land; we get paid in prayers and we make little concessions: this or that incurable illness miraculously healed, good catches of fishes for the fishermen or good crops for the farmers, healthy children and good luck during travels for merchants and so on...Considering that we DO have the power to help and we get paid well, I can't honestly tell why we shouldn't actually listen. The more we ' _answer'_ the more people believe we exist and have faith in us, thus the more prayers we get."**

" _Do Ut Des_." Tanya said chuckling.

"' _ **I give to you so that I may get something back from you**_ _ **',**_ **quite the fitting analogy."**

"Be as it may, you are not exactly giving me a choice here."

" **I am merely asking you to give a hand to Malvas' Champion Naruto and Varudora's Champion Rimuru,** **contrary to them** **you have the option to refuse. Should you refuse I will look elsewhere for a Champion and let you be. The only incentive I can give you is about me killing Being X NOW and then promise me and my brothers will exterminate his friends once you have helped us stop the King of Barad-se and his plans."** Ifrion answered.

"And you will leave me walk away knowing all this?" the child soldier asked smirking.

" **I can erase your memories of this little meeting of use quite easily,** "

"Tch! Should have imagined it. And I guess simply killing the King or even completely erasing Barad-se from the face of the planet won't help."

" **That man has already abandoned his Castle** **a long time ago.**

 **He has left** **behind a decoy his beloved Elf wife created and can control from distance, the two of them are somewhere escaping even the eyes of me and my brothers, otherwise I would have burned the fool down myself. No, with the excuse of the Guild I would need you and the other Champion** **s** **to search left and right for that man's hideout and finally stop him. Should you accept, that is."**

"..."

" **What I am offering you is freedom, Miss Tanya...You yourself noticed how** _ **somehow**_ **your plans to avoid conflicts and deadly situations fail miserably, to the point your are forced to use the full power of that pendant and start spouting prayers to X...and how you started doing that even without using that Power. Help us in our time of need and no other deity will EVER bother you again, I promise this on my won life.** " Ifrion said sighing.

"You would risk your life on this?"

" **My life in exchange of the safety of my brothers, the dead and the living of my world and every other planet? Yes, I will gladly pay the price, it is my** **duty** **to protect the mortals, no matter the cost!** " the Titan said immediately as he raised to his full height to proudly answer in full honesty, thing that deep-down surprised the young girl a little.

"...Can you let me think about this? Two days, by then I will have the answer either positive or negative." Tanya answered after a long silence.

" **I can accept that, just know that should your answer be no, as soon as you deny your help your memories of all this will be erased,** **same going if you try to alert Barad-se or other people before the two days expire** **.** "

"I accept the terms."

" **Good. As a sign of good faith, I will now remove Being X from the equation! It is high time the Interloper to be gone, especially since by his actions of bringing you here and helping Barad-se locate the Titan of Fire the whole plan had been set in motion!"** Ifrion answered with a booming voice as his body went enveloped by a thick aura of fire fully displaying his rage.

" **COME HERE, YOU SPOILED CHILD!** " the giant phoenix bellowed as chains of pure fire burst from his tail to pierce the whiteness surrounding him and Tanya, soon tensing as they latched on _something_.

" **Got you."** Tanya had to admit that even her shivered a little at the dark tone Ifrion used at feeling his prey try to squirm away from his hold.

" **I SAID COME HERE!** " the giant bird bellowed as the bearded human Tanya knew as Being X went unceremoniously dragged in front of Ifrion and slammed at the feet of the titanic phoenix that stood towering over the way smaller ' _deity'_.

" **Hello, little child. Welcome to your judgment day."** the tone was jovial, but only an idiot would have missed the acidic scorn right under it.

"What is the meaning of this?! Free me this instant!" the other deity growled as he futilely tried to break free.

"Hello there, Being X. Fancy meeting you here." Tanya said with a dark smile as she FINALLY saw the thorn to her side quivering on his knees helpless.

"YOU! What have you done!? Have you fell so much to rely on false gods!?" the bearded man yelled theatrically.

" **Aah! Quit yer yapping, ya two-bits good fer nothin'!"** mildly surprising Tanya with the... _inflection_ of his tone, Ifrion pulled on the chain making X slam his face HARD on the floor making few of his teeth fly off.

" _ **Ah-Hem!**_ **As I was saying! Be quiet and do not make a fool of yourself, child!** " the phoenix tried again.

"Release me this instant and repent for you pagan ways! Then maybe I will show you mer- _GUEH_!" the new round of _holier-than-thou_ attitude stopped abruptly when Being X went lift from the floor to be brought in front of Ifrion's beak that then opened to show that he DID have a mouth, only in the form of a bottomless gaping fissure of intense flames hot enough to make Hell look like a winter resort.

" **So?"** he asked as a wisp of flames flew up to slightly burn the end of X long beard.

"...I believe I can offer you five minutes of my time to hear you out, so speak fast as I am a busy God."

"Eat him and I switch side right this instant." Tanya offered immediately with her most ravenous smirk.

"NO! DON'T EAT HIM! IT WOULD BE BLASPHEMY!" X countered.

" **No, it would be ' _food Poisoning'_ as I would eat something rotten. Now sit down and listen!** " Ifrion said slamming the deity down in a chorus of breaking bones.

"GAH!"

" **As you may have noticed, you have entered a world where you have no power, straining yourself to even add Miss Tanya so to convert our children to your Faith...Did you plan to abandon her world and move in ours?** " he asked.

"..." X stood stubbornly silent as he avoided to even look at the phoenix.

" **You will talk."** Ifrion answered groaning in annoyance as the chains shined briefly in a purple light making the trapped man's eyes bulge out.

"Yes!" he blurted in answer without control.

"I see! So you were going for a hostile acquisition! You forced me here to strengthen your powers so to cross over here and take over!" Tanya hissed furious.

" **And what about your original world?** "

"Those lambs are lost! They do not believe! They are greedy, war-mongering fools that no longer fear and respect the gods! They no longer pray to us nor they offer their whole being to us!"

" **Have you tried answering to their prayers? Have you tried to listen? To act? Sending a saint or a Martyr every once in a while means nothing if you then turn blind and deaf. You want their prayers? Then show them there is somebody to pray to! Do not pretend the humans to teach each new generation to believe in you implicitly, you have to give them proof!** "

"Why should we?!"

" **Faith is built, not a fancy gadget you get with your position. You mean to tell me that helping more often is outside you abilities? If I saw correctly in Miss Tanya's memories, you were always ready to go posturing about being ' _The Almighty'_...Was it all propaganda then?"** Ifrion asked curious.

"They have to help themselves! Like that they will grow! They can't pretend to have us always help them!" Being X answered.

" **Should they help themselves? Yes! It helps them grow? Yes! But even the Will of the Humans, of the Elves, of the Orcs, of the Centaurs, of the Merfolk or even of the Undead SOMETIMES find an obstacle simply too big to surpass either alone or in group, so giving them a push like a father would and tell them: " _Here is were you need to act"_ and then gently push them ONCE in that direction, is not _spoiling them_ , is putting them on the right path! THEN you can sit back and watch them learn. **

**Nobody learned to walk by themselves, we all had somebody holding our hands the first time; true talent is understanding when to act and when not, and then give small nudges. You instead, you and your friends abandoned your people while pretending to be fed of their prayers while doing nothing! And instead of admitting your mistakes once the situation got out of hand, you looked elsewhere for greener pastures! YOU ARE SICKENING ME!"** Ifrion answered as he started lazily flapping his four wings, generating a terrifying blast of hot air apparently burning only X while leaving Tanya unscathed.

" **You only had to remember them that they were not ' _fighting alone'_! That even in their darkest moments of despair you were there! But you were too damn lazy and prideful to lower yourself to that! You left the elderly do all the work by spinning around great tales of power and generosity while you sat back! And NOW you are trying to start anew in MY world?! Your actions have set in motion the absolute destruction of everything just to appease your Ego! AND I HAVE HAD ENOUGH!"** the wind was now howling deafeningly while Being X wheezed and coughed while his skin slowly burned to ashes until muscles and then bones started being visible.

"I-I-I can stop...The evil...I am...God…"

" **YOU FOOL! YOU COULD NOT BE BOTHERED TO HELP PEOPLE SURVIVE FAMINES AND ILLNESSES AND YOU THINK YOU CAN STOP THE MONSTROSITY WE ARE TRAPPING IN OUR DREAMS AND TRIED TO DESTROY WITHOUT PAUSE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS!? THAT'S IT! YOU INSOLENCE SHALL NO LONGER BE TOLERATED!** " Ifrion, by now almost foaming at the mouth in rage, gave a mighty flap of his wings that reduced Being X' body to ashes in an instant.

"My child...Help meeee…" by now reduced to a wisp of smoke, X soul tried moving towards Tanya.

"Nothing of my concern, Being X. You are just reaping what you sew." the girl answered in pure glee.

"Noooo!"

" **GET OVER HERE!** " Ifrion bellowed as his maw closed tightly around the deity's soul, swallowing it whole.

"AAAAAAAAAH!" Silence soon followed as even Being X soul went destroyed until of him noting else remained.

He was no more, completely erased with no chances of ever returning.

" **My part of the deal is done, that deity has been forever erased...Not a big lost in my opinion, if your world is lucky this idiot's son should be more than able to run things in his place now that he will finally able to be in charge, he looked like somebody with Heart and Head in the right place, so I can hope he will do a better job."**

"So I have two days to decide?" Tanya asked sighing tiredly.

" **Yes, but please, at least consider the idea of lending us a hand.** " Ifrion answered.

"I'll think about it." she answered uncertain.

" **Thank you, it's all I ask. Now rest, you earned it.** " the phoenix said with a gentle tone as everything faded away and Tanya fell in deep sleep.

 **Unknown time later – Inn Room – With Naruto -**

The reborn shinobi groaned as he finally managed to crack open one eye to see a ceiling he didn't recognize and feel the comfort of a fluffy mattress under his body, along a damn good pillow holding his head and kinda-too-tight moist bandages covering most of is body and half his face (along his right eye) smelling faintly of spices mixed with what he guessed were medical herbs with a strong minty scent.

"Good morning! Slept well?" a familiar voice asked gently as a glass of water was presented to him while a pair of strong arms helped him sit up on the bed.

"Where am I?" Naruto asked yawning and emptying the glass in record time.

"In one of Serena City's best Inns! ' _Maiden's Heart'_ , we were all damn worried about you, you know?" Olaf answered sighing as he filled a new glass.

"What about the others? And that kid?" the shinobi asked.

"That soldier is staying in the room next to this with a couple of guards there to stop her from leaving, but ever since she woke-up yesterday she has yet to speak or move, she just sits there thinking.

Princess Alice and her friend instead are okay, they went ahead to talk with the King about what happened, the others are in the meantime answering few questions about us and that soldier of Barad-se, lucking Captain Lars' words and his vouching for you and Mi smoothed things considerably, we entered here with very little trouble." the dwarf answered relaxing a bit more on his chair.

"Mi must have been worried sick."

"She was a wreck, Naruto. Three days you have been out and almost dead and she never slept a wink to protect you, and let me tell you this, the **[War Bears]** we encountered were damn angry this time of year and would have loved to use you as a snack...That girl tore through them like mad," the other answered sounding both really amused and really proud.

"But she is okay?" Naruto asked again.

"Oh! She is more than okay! Watch..." Olaf answered walking towards the window to open it and then.

"HEY! MI! GUESS WHO WOKE UP!?" he yelled down on the road with a wide smile.

The answer was a LOUD stampede going from outside, to inside with annexed demolition of the entrance door and then the kicking open of the bedroom door all in the short span of few seconds before a blurry of motion dived for the bed slamming the poor Hobgoblin deep in it from the momentum.

"Gah!"

"You are alive!" Mi yelled happily as she seemingly tried to turn Naruto's bones to dust with how hard she was hugging him.

"Not for long if you hug me like this!" Naruto begged tapping her back.

"DON'T EVEN TRY AGAIN TO MAKE ME WORRY LIKE THAT!" the girl bellowed furious as she grabbed his shoulders to shook him wildly.

"OKAY! OKAY!...Hey! You look different..."

"Yup! I evolved! So we are both Hobgoblins now!" Mi answered cheerfully.

She did look different in fact, while the wild style of her hair remained, her features had softened a great deal, shaving away most of the ' _monster'_ side of her in favour of a more human-like appearance, with smoother skin and softer facial features, leaving only the slightly protruding canines and ears ( _along her emerald-green skin)_ being the only things differentiating her from a normal teenage human girl, she even got taller, almost matching Naruto and coming only few inches shorter than him.

"...You look damn pretty, you know?" he was forced to admit making her blush dark-red.

"Thank you...D-D-Darling." she muttered very shyly and taking the reborn shinobi by surprise with a lightning-fast peck on his lips.

"Ooooh! That is what you are talking about!" Olaf said in realization.

"What?" Naruto asked confused, for more than one reason to be honest.

"I heard the other girls of the convoy talk about it...Apparently she is stating her claim on you." the dwarf answered VERY amused.

"Eh? Her claim?" Naruto asked as he watched Mi the Hobgoblin sigh contently as she hugged him and buried her face on the crook of his neck to let-out a very purr-like sound.

" **I think he means that Mi-san arbitrarily decided you will be her boyfriend and that you will be forced to accept it**." Kurama tried explaining.

"...Meh! Could have gone worse." after a long pause of thought Naruto shrugged and returned the hug making Mi give a quiet squeal of satisfaction.

"You are taking this well," Olaf said chuckling.

"Hey, she is a fun girl, she is pretty and smart... _Sniiif_ _f_ _!_ And she smells damn nice." he answered smirking.

" _Uuuhm..._ Naruto smells nice too." Mi answered burying her face just a tiny bit more in his neck.

"Do you want me to leave you alone?" Olaf asked wiggling his eyebrows.

"No/yes." Naruto and me answered at the same time.

"Why no?" Mi asked confused.

"I am hurt." he answered simply.

"Then M will do most of the work." she answered nonplussed and with a feral smile.

"What do you meAAAN-WOOZA!" the reborn shinobi started saying before the pretty hand of the hobgoblin girl closed with a firm grip around his privates.

"At least let me get out first!" the dwarf merchant said whining as he covered his eyes.

"I fear the... _Celebrations_...Will have to wait." A new voice said from the door.

"KING LEODAS!" Olaf shrieked in surprise as he jumped to his feet to bow to the King.

"Relax, relax. I am not here officially, so we can put aside etiquette and get straight to the point." the old King said gently as his old companions walked outside to stand at both sides of the door.

"Nice to meet you, Leodas-san, I am-"

"Mister Namikaze and Mi, the hobgoblins, I know of you. My daughter and her friend told me everything." Leodas interrupted him just as Alice and Albedo too entered the room.

"How are you?" the succubus asked.

"Feeling a lot better, the _Regeneration_ Skill I have already healed most of the damages." Naruto asked smiling wide.

"That is an understatement, by all means you should have been dead." Alice answered sighing.

"I am not new to that, truth be told." he said snorting amused.

" **Yeah, WAY TOO MUCH EXPERIENCE ON THAT, actually."** Kurama added sighing frustrated.

"What I fail to understand is...Why? I get it you said you did it just because you thought they needed help...But I don't get the reason behind your risking your life like this. Any other Goblin or Hobgoblin would have turned tail as soon as the situation worsened, and yet, you pushed through...It can't only be confidence in your skills, no matter how absurd your _stats_ are. Then...Why?" Leodas asked honestly confused.

"In a Goblin tribe you don't get help, you either survive on your own or you die and I don't like that attitude, I like to help my friends, even the ones I just met. I decided that I would never run away and that I would never go back on my word as my personal Rule of Life, so I decided to follow it, becoming strong so to protect my _precious people_. I said I would have helped Alice-san and Albedo-san to get back home here, and nobody would have stopped me from doing that." the reborn shinobi answered.

" _Damn it, he sounds like a nice boy._ " Leodas thought grimacing as he saw, to his displeasure, that both his daughter and her friend looked particularly pleased by his answer.

"I was told you wanted to create a Guild of your own and become a Mercenary, quite the goal for a Monster." the King asked sighing.

"I want to show that I am not a moron or a savage like the other Goblins, I think I can actually become the greatest Mercenary ever!" Naruto answered smirking.

"Yes, Alice mentioned that. What about this, as a thank you for saving my beloved daughter, I will endorse this myself and help you… DO NOT make me regret this." Leodas said nailing the young man with a terrifying glare.

"I don't intend to." Naruto answered nodding.

"You sure, your Highness?" Olaf asked shocked.

"Following the reports and what the people of your own convoy told me, he seems like knowing what he is doing and getting himself into, so I guess I can give him the benefit of the doubt for now. But other than himself and Mi he will need to find AT LEAST other four members for the bare minimum ' _Active Roster'_ plus other four ' _reserves'_ just in case somebody gets wounded so to keep the Guild able to take Missions." Leodas answered.

"So a minimum of ten people is necessary to create a Guild?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"Not exactly, the minimum is six, the other four are a precaution just to not go on a Mission with a member less in your party." the King answered.

"We will join him, so he only lacks two other members." Alice said smirking.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Leodas screamed in outrage.

"I WANT TO GO, DADDY!" the snake girl yelled back.

"NO! I FORBID YOU!"

"ALBEDO WILL COME WITH ME!" the girl replied whining.

"THEN IS EVEN WORSE! I WON'T HEAR THE END OF IT IF SHE TOO GOES!"

"This is going to take while..." Naruto muttered sighing in defeat as daughter and father kept arguing.

"Then we will wait." Mi answered as she happily cuddled with him on the bed.

" **I wonder were we could look for the missing members for your Guild...We also need to find that guy to turn the huge fang you have into a weapon that won't break in two swings like the others AND that other '** _ **Chosen One'**_ **the booming voice talked about.** " Kurama said grumbling annoyed.

" _We will deal with it as soon as we have done here._ " the reborn shinobi answered shrugging as he settled back down on the very comfy bed.

" **I hope it won't take too much at least.** "

 **Meanwhile – outside -**

A Young silver-haired pre-teen boy with very feminine features and eyes the colour of pure-gold was slowly walking through the great mass of merchants and citizens filling the streets towards the Inn Naruto was using, he was wearing a black fur coat and scarf and under it a kimono and wide pants.

"You sure he is around here?" he muttered unsure.

" _ **Confirmed: the other Chosen One is resting in the Inn right in front of us**_." a robotic-like voice replied immediately.

" **I would trust your Skill [** _ **Great Sage**_ ] **if I were you, it still has to fail** **us** **.** " another voice, this one booming with a hissing undertone, added.

"Then I guess I have no choice but go meet him...I hope he is a nice guy at least." the androgynous guy muttered sighing.

" **Malvas had always have good eyes for people, if he choose him, it means we can be sure we won't deal with a moron or a stuck-up fool...But I am more concerned about him knowing the full ramifications of his being moved here at his death.** " the dragon resting deep inside the boy's body sighed tiredly.

"What do you mean?" he asked faltering a little in his steps.

" **That while good in a lot of things, my brother had always being dramatically over-cautious in a lot of things, and considering he once turned a whole mountain range to dust just by poking it lightly, I can't honestly blame him. So, just in case this guy has not been completely briefed '** _ **To not aggravate him too much with the burden'**_ **as I fear it may be the case...Please be GENTLE in explaining to him why you two have been chosen...I hope Ifrion instead will make a more proper job should he find the third and final Chosen."**

 _Sigh!_ "Okay, I'll see what I can do, Varudora."

" **Thank you, my friend.** "

Yep, apparently Naruto was the only one not fully in the know about WHY he had found himself on Elrune as a Goblin upon death, but luckily he was just as good at adapting as he had been in his old life as a shinobi.

"NO FUCKING WAY! YOU ARE NARUTO!? I HAVE THE FULL MANGA COLLECTION! I LOVE YOUR ANIME!"

"Manga? Anime?"

There, that will be harder to explain instead.

 **SO! new chapter done finally! WOOO! I decided to have them have a faint clue about WHY they have been reborn in a new world, as a way to distace myself from the usual Light Novel cliche of " _Chance"_ , I guess I dug my own grave then! XD**

 **Time-Line Speaking: Rimuru is basically right after consuming the Orc Lord, but he never founded the city Tempest, he has met and befriended the Oni group though.**

 **Tanya: ideally right after she became First Lieutenant and obtained the ' _Von'_ in her name.**

 **So we have Rimuru and Naruto having been strong armed into being Chosen Ones while Tanya has been given the choice (I don't think Tanya's old name has ever been revealed so I am giving her one myself, sorry if I missed it).**

 **The final part with Rimuru was just me fooling around XD.**

 **The Guild: here are few details (please help me fix/cover the _holes_ in it):**

 **Name:** _Monster Star Guild_ **(since made mostly by Non-Human members)**

 _ **Ruler (**_ **or** ** _Master_ of the Guild)/ Front-line fighter/ spy/ infiltrator: Naruto. since he is the founder.**

 _ **Second in Command**_ **: Rimuru Tempest.**

 _ **Strategist/spokesman:**_ **Tanya Von Degurechaf (Also doubling as** ** _Sniper_ )**

 _ **Support (Long Distance)**_ **: Mi Namikaze. (She insisted on the surname…)**

 _ **Support (Healer and Buffer)/Guild Representative in Human-ruled Lands:**_ **Alipheese Fateburn** **"** **Alice"**

 _ **Support (Heavy attacker Healer)/ Guild Representative in Monster-ruled Lands: Albedo Ooal Gown.**_

 _ **Support (Long Distance and heavy attacker with Magic)/ Researcher, Linguist and historian: Jibril.**_

 _ **Support (Buffer and Healer)**_ **/ errand girl: Shantae.**

 _ **Support (short distance and heavy hitter with Magic)/ Researcher: Mana**_

 **Should I add Lars and Olaf too? They would be:**

 ** _Support_ (De-buffer, also known as ' _Saboteur_ ')/ Guild merchant and the one taking care of Supplies: Olaf.**

 _ **Support (Heavy hitter with physical attacks) / Spy master and the one training the Guild Members:**_ **Lars.**

 **Thank you for your patience in waiting for me to update, sorry if I took this long, I will try to update faster.**

 **I will see you around the net, BYEEEE!**

 **Tr230.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I am sorry many of you didn't like how I handled the fight between Tanya and Naruto, but consider this, I have red the original web novel the manga and anime come from, and in every instance Tanya HATES using the power _Being X_ gave her since it forces her to pray for him and be his Messiah.**

 **Also, as I stated, Naruto's sneaking skills and stealth attributes were high enough to _force her_ to fly low and get too close as otherwise she would not have been able to track him, and in that fight he was her biggest obstacle to kidnap Alice **_alive_ **so, strategically speaking, she could not just swoop in and take the girl, or so I saw it...I am sorry if it felt forced a bit.**

 **But Tanya Von Degurechaff has a HUGE ego, that you cannot deny, especially since that ego was what caused the poor guy to be reborn as a girl in a war-torn world, he/she had to piss off a God-like being that already showed powers over Time and Space and the ability to posses other humans to speak through them.**

 **Again, I wish to apology for the less-than-brillant way I handled it.**

 **By the way, here we'll see the birth of Naruto's guild with Rimuru, yet another human reborn as a monster in Elrune because chosen by the Three Guardians of that world and Tanya joining them together with Lars and Olaf...Along one or two mission of the recently-born Guild.**

 **The Guild: few details (please help me fix/cover the _holes_ in it):**

 **Name:** _Monster Star Guild_ **(since made mostly by Non-Human members)**

 _ **Ruler (**_ **or** ** _Master_ of the Guild)/ Front-line fighter/ spy/ infiltrator: Naruto. since he is the founder.**

 _ **Second in Command**_ **: Rimuru Tempest.**

 _ **Strategist/spokesman:**_ **Tanya Von Degurechaf (Also doubling as** ** _Sniper_ )**

 _ **Support (Long Distance)**_ **: Mi Namikaze. (She insisted on the surnam** **e)**

 _ **Support (Healer and Buffer)/Guild Representative in Human-ruled Lands:**_ **Princess** **Alipheese Fateburn,** **AKA** **"** **Alice"**

 _ **Support (Heavy attacker and Healer)/ Guild Representative in Monster-ruled Lands:**_ **Albedo Ooal Gown.**

 _ **Support (Long Distance and heavy attacker with Magic)/ Researcher, Linguist and historian:**_ **Jibril** ** _._**

 _ **Support (Buffer and Healer)**_ **/ errand girl: Shantae.**

 _ **Support (short distance and heavy hitter with Magic)/ Researcher:**_ **Mana** **( _Dark Magician Girl_ expy.)**

 ** _Support_ (De-buffer, also known as ' _Saboteur_ ')/ Guild merchant and the one taking care of Supplies: Olaf.**

 _ **Support (Heavy attacker with physical attacks) / Spy master and the one training the Guild Members:**_ **Lars.**

 _ **Front-line Fighter and heavy lifter:**_ **Fist. (who's he? you'll see in this Chapter XD)**

 **I** **changed** **Demon Queen** **Alice and** **Albedo's back-story to fit my** **fanfic** **. Like that, just because** _ **I can**_ **.**

" **You bastard"** \- demon talking / jutsu

"Let's finish this" - dialogue

" _Can it get any worse?_ " - during flashback/thoughts

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or whatever I will use here in this fic.**

 **A certain blond in an RPG World Chapter 5: Life is worth Grinding for! Take a Mission, complete the Quest and get the reward! Take a Mission, complete the Quest and get the reward! Take a Mission, complete the Quest and get the reward! This is a Real Man's life!**

 **In one of Serena City's best Inns - ' _Maiden's Heart'_ (4,5 stars out of 5 on ' _Journey_ _Advisor')_ \- **

The main room of the _HUGE_ inn was, as always during the weekends, packed full and simply drowning in multiple voices exchanging tales, singing drunkenly and arguing about the questionable points of the latest round of cards, darts, drinking games and dice results from the nerd side with their _**D &H**_ ( _Dungeons &Humans)_ game...Damn nerds ruining our tabletop games! It used to be only for cool kids before they arrived!

The only one not even bothered in the slightest by the utter chaos reigning in the main room of the Inn was the owner herself, Madame Rosetta, and considering she was a half-giant almost three-meters tall and with biceps twice bigger than a human man's torso, there was no surprise in that, nor there had ever been fist-fights in the Inn ever since she gained ownership through an hour-long duel of arm-wrestling with who would later become her husband…

Especially since EVERYBODY in Serena City once saw her easily snap the neck of a rampaging giant boar even bigger than her with her bare hands.

"Girls, come on! Those tips won't collect themselves!" the woman was heard order from behind the counter making her waitresses hurry-up to collect the coins left behind from leaving customers and clean the tables for the next ones.

"Yes, Lady Rosetta!"

"Here, for the pretty boys down on the back, send them a wink from me, 'kay?" she then asked to one of them and giving to the poor small girl three huge pints filled to the brim in her special blend of ice-cold cider.

"You mean the table with the Hobgoblins?" the waitress asked back worried.

"They are good, King Leodas himself is vouching for them, the male one even saved the Princess instead of abusing her, he is good, have no fear...And even then, you really think he would walk out of here alive if he tries anything with any of you?" Rosetta answered smirking.

"Okay, Lady Rosetta!" the girl obeyed smiling and bringing the pints to the table Naruto, Mi and Rimuru had took for themselves.

"Honey! I can't find the beef meat! Where did you put it?" the owner's husband called-out from the kitchen.

"They are in the cold room, darling! I snapped those cows in half myself this morning just the way you like, they are there!" she answered annoyed.

"My kitchen is all a mess, I can't work like this!"

 _Sigh!_ "This happens when you marry a [ _Chef_ ], they are all a bunch of perfectionists when it comes to food." Rosetta sighed shaking her head.

 **With Naruto and the others -**

"Thank you." Mi said grateful as she took the pints from the waitress and watched her walk rapidly away to serve other tables.

"Her dress is so pretty..." she muttered amazed.

"As soon as we get some money from our Missions, we'll buy some pretty clothes, okay?" Naruto offered smiling.

"Okay!" she answered happily.

"Returning to the matter at hand." the third occupant of the table said unsure.

"Yes, Rimuru?"

"As the King said, as a Guild we need AT LEAST ten people for the bare minimum members: four for the ' _Active Roster'_ plus other four ' _reserves'_ just in case somebody gets wounded so to keep the Guild able to take Missions and two for general management and further reserves." Rimuru said looking through the short pamphlet of Guild-building rules King Leodas gave them.

"Yep!" Naruto answered nodding.

"Okay, with me, you and Mi we are at three members...We shouldn't count Albedo-san and Alice-san just in case the King manages to force them to not join us...So we'll need seven other members." the other said unsure as he distractedly drank from his pint.

"Any idea who to ask?"

"I have met a couple of Ogres the first few days I came here, but I have left them behind to create a town for monsters, before being remembered my Mission by Varudora I planned to just live my life there in peace like a monster, if in the meantime I helped other more peaceful monster make an honest living the better. At least once done here saving the world we'll have a place to live." Rimuru answered sighing.

"Sounds nice. So we known nobody else that may be interested to join us, you can't ask Varudora-san for help?" Naruto replied deflating a little.

"No, apparently Malvas took a very _**daring**_ gamble with you. He was about to be found so he gave you his Core before Barad-se could get their hands on it: if they get even just one of the three, they would be able to use it to find the others." the young man answered.

"So what happened?" Mi asked.

"The three Titans MUST be asleep at all times otherwise their Seal will fail, two sleeping Titans are the absolute minimum otherwise the thing starts corroding fast. With Malvas dead, Varudora can stay awake only for at best one hour a day before the Seal starts collapsing, Ifiron alone is not enough. Had things been different, he would have been free to stay awake more. As it is, we are already toeing Armageddon, we are lucky your own sleeping also helps them a tiny bit, Malvas' Core can still faintly strengthen the Seal through you, even if way more weakly than normal." he answered.

"Good thing to hear...But why calling us? Why, of all people already in Elrune, they needed to go to another world to get a guy from a simple office and a Shinobi and have them reborn here as a Slime and a Goblin to help them?" Naruto asked confused.

"I have no idea." Rimuru answered sighing in defeat.

" _ **[Suggestion: Varudora is notorious as the '**_ **Tempest Dragon'** _ **and as the 'Patron of the Brave**_ _ **s'**_ _ **while Malvas is called '**_ **The First of the Valorous'.** _ **You faced death with a serene and calm mind, thus attracting Varudora's attention while Mister Naruto as possessor of great strength and yet greater heart attracted Malvas'. You both have been chosen because you represent an ideal both Titans respect.]**_ " _Great Sage_ suggested inside Rimuru's head.

" **Yeah, what the inferior version of me said.** " Kurama added unimpressed.

" _ **[Remark: I am not the inferior version. :( ]**_ "

"Quit it, you two!" both reborn heroes answered as one while groaning.

"Your skills are still arguing?" Mi asked amused.

"Uh-hu!" the former shinobi answered making her giggle.

" **By the way, there is already somebody with the [Hero] Title going around...Shouldn't they be the one fixing this mess?** " Kurama said unsure.

"Yes, I was told that by _Great Sage_ too before coming here, but whoever it is, they are not the Chosen One of Ifrion...Maybe they want to use them as a backup plan? Or maybe we try to find the King and Queen of Barad-se while the Hero is a bait?" Rimuru proposed.

"If that's the truth...Poor guy, that Title and still not the Hero..." Naruto commented looking sad.

"Hey?" Mi asked.

"Yes?"

"What will happen to that human kid?" the young Hobgoblin asked as she looked at the ceiling towards the room were the soldier of Barad-se they have captured, called Tanya, was still being held prisoner.

"Tomorrow few guards will come to take her to the Castle to be interrogated." Naruto answered.

"Oh! Will they hurt her?"

"Probably, if she does not collaborate, that is. Unfortunately for her, she has a ' _Reputation'_ , so they won't feel obliged to be gentle." Rimuru answered sighing.

"Ooh." the girl Hobgoblin commented with a sad expression.

"Changing topic: I got a message from Olaf, tomorrow he will take us to see the small house we will use as a base for our Guild, as part of King Leodas' way of thanking us for saving Alice." Naruto said sounding excited.

"Good! At least we'll have some chance to really make this Guild thing work, but...Say..." Rimuru asked shyly.

"Yes?" Naruto replied with narrowed eyes.

"...How was Kakashi in real life? In person?"

"Oh, for the love of God!"

"Hihihi!" Mi giggled amused by her boyfriend's despair.

She didn't care if he ( _somehow)_ was a human before coming to Elrune, now he was a Hobgoblin, _**HER**_ Hobgoblin, and nothing else mattered.

 **Later that night – Inn – Tanya's room -**

The very young girl stood silent and immobile under the covers of her bed while valiantly ignoring the burning sensation of the medical herbs under the bandages covering most of her body and the stiffness of her broken arm tightly wrapped in its sling.

" _What to do...What to do..._ " she thought intensely as her one-eyed-glare tried to drill a hole in the ceiling above her.

Her other eye was buried too deep under bandages to join the glare, another thing that didn't help her sour mood.

" _On one hand I have a failed Mission that not only doesn't bring a very important hostage under Barad-Se's control, but also made it clear as day that my land DID plan something against the Royal Family here...But it also has our latest prototype of Magical Core fall in enemy hands, and albeit heavily-damaged, it could still be used to study how the others work...And the information I could possibly give should they interrogate me._ " the girl thought while belatedly looking around the completely pitch-black room and at the door leading to the corridor outside where two heavily-armed guards were making sure nobody could enter or leave the room without them noticing.

" _And on the opposite side I have a minor deity to which I owe the death of Being X...And while I can still refuse to pay my debt by helping those two '_ Chosen Ones' _, I risk that should I even in the very unlikely case manage to talk my superiors into removing me from the battlefield for a desk job in Barad-Se Army Barracks, my Life and/or Afterlife would be a risk because their plan caused some unclear monstrosity to literally '_ Eat _'_ _everything, afterlife comprised..._ _So there is a very high chance of me getting the short end of the stick in both cases."_

 _ **Ding!**_

 _ **Ding!**_

 _ **Ding!**_

 _ **Ding!...**_

A very far-away echo signaled the approaching of midnight thanks to the bells of the main cathedral of Elrune's Church ( _The literal Headquarter of the whole religion_ ) that started ringing with a very sweet and low tone coming from their smallest bells chiming to alert the population of the upcoming hour.

"Only thirty minutes left for me to decide..." Tanya muttered sighing as she heard the last minutes before her deadline passing way faster than normal towards the incoming midnight.

Should she accept Ifrion's proposal and become the third ' _Chosen One'_ or refuse and remain a soldier of Barad-Se while also forgetting every detail of her meeting with the Sleeping Titan? What would actually be the right answer for her in her current situation?

It was then that her very well-trained ears caught the faint sound of the two guards outside gasping weakly and slowly sliding down the floor before falling silent.

"Who's there?" the young kid asked harshly and gasping in pain from the simple act of sitting up on her bed.

In answer the door of her room went quietly unlocked to let two robed figures enter undisturbed.

"Von Degurechaff?" the tallest of the two asked with a deep voice while his companion dragged inside the two very dead guards.

"You finally came to bring me home? What took you so long?" Tanya asked growling furious.

"..."

"So? Why don't you answer?" she asked again as the short one kept rummaging everywhere in the room and in the guards' pockets.

"The Magical Core is not here." the man finally said with a more squeaky tone of voice.

"Figures, I guess the King himself has it in custody, or at least one of his lackeys does." the tall one replied.

"They'll pay us less if we don't bring that thing back." Short countered whining.

"Then we'll keep looking for it, now we have more pressing matters to deal with." Tall answered as he neared the bed.

"Yes, we have, help me- _ **GAH!**_ " What Tanya was about to say stopped when the tall guy's hands closed tightly around her neck immediately cutting-off her breathing.

"Sorry, kiddo. Our King prefers you dead and the Core back to Barad-Se, apparently your failure made them rethink the whole prototype thing, so they asked us to kill you and recover the thing...I bet me and my brother will finally be promoted if we do a good job." he said as a way to apology as his hold on her throat grew even stronger soon making her eyes roll upward in her skull and her face gain a faint blue hue.

"Hey! Before you kill her...Can we...You know..." Short asked unsure.

"...For fuck sake! She is a kid!" Tall answered scandalized.

"Yeah but last time we had a girl you went first, then she was so loose I felt like I was trying to stick my dick in a hallway." the other answered whining.

"Well you'll have to wait until I killed her then! At least she won't feel it!" the tall one growled angrily in answer as he finally turned around to glare at his partner.

In that precise moment, summoning her last remaining strength, the young girl kicked upward with her right leg, the only one not wrapped in bandages, nailing the tall guy right between the legs making him howl loudly in agony along dropping her, giving the wounded kid the opening to roll down the bed to try and escape.

" _AAAAARGH_! YOU LITTLE SHIT!" the tall stranger bellowed furious, grabbing Tanya by her hair to throw her against the small nightstand of her room demolishing it in a shower of splinters and shards of glass from the broken mirror above it.

"GAH!" she cried-out in pain while the mysterious man started stomping all over her body forcing her to use her sane arm to try cover her face.

"You made too much noise! let's go!" Short hissed as he walked towards the door to hear if somebody was coming.

"A minute! I splatter this brat's brain all over the walls and then we can go!" Tall answered as he kept kicking the downed girl.

"You better hurry-up inst- _ **Thunk!**_ " Short started countering when a blade went plunged in the door all the way through until the tip pierced his skull as well.

"Noo!" Tall yelled with wide eyes as the door went kicked open making his brother's corpse tumble away lifeless.

"I knew I felt some bad intentions!" Naruto hissed angrily as he, Mi and Rimuru walked in in a great hurry.

"You walk away from her!" Mi ordered while cocking back an arrow on the short bow in her hands.

"You killed my brother for this brat?! I will fucking slaughter you all!" the tall man roared as he unsheathed a long sword with a thick curved blade.

"DIE!" surprisingly it was Tanya to answer as she grabbed a shard of the broken mirror to plunge it in the man's ankle, making him scream in pain and fall on his knee.

"You attacked a superior officer with intent of killing her, this level of insubordination cannot be overlooked!" looking completely out of it in anger, and still unable to use magic because without her medallion and still wearing [ _Mana_ _Suppressing Bracelets_ ] around her wrist, the young kid used the same long shard of mirror to cut open the man's neck in a thick spray of greenish blood making him gasp and desperately trying to close the wound with his hands.

" _Five minutes at midnight..._ " Tanya thought as the pain from old and new wounds along the lack of oxygen from the strangling was causing her sight to lose focus and her head to spin.

" _In lieu of my former employees' act of_ mobbing _, I see myself forced to retire from my current position in the Army of Barad-Se after years of honorable service and unquestioning loyalty."_ turning slightly delirious from the mixture of pain, blood-loss, suffocation, fear, anger, medicines and low Mana coursing through her veins, Tanya's mind wandered through old and new memories and experiences both in Elrune and in her previous life as she swayed heavily until she finally collapsed on the floor.

" _It is then, to my utmost pleasure, that I hereby accept Mister Ifrion's offer of employment as a Chosen One together with the ones chosen by Mister Malvas and Mister Varudora. Pleased to make your acquaintance, I hope we will work well together and bring much profit to our small project..._ " the kid thought faintly as she saw the goblin and the Slime look over her with worried eyes until darkness claimed her as soon as she fainted.

 **Two Weeks Later – Serena City – _Monster Star_ Guild HQ - **

"Monster Star?" Naruto asked curious as he and Mi watched the small wooden shield acting as a banner on the side of the simple construction and proudly showing the Guild's name in its middle.

"When they asked me for a name I forgot the one we had agreed on, and I panicked. So I used the first two words in Human Language I came up with..." Mi answered pouting and poking the tips of her pointer fingers together.

"Well, it's not exactly wrong, since the founders are non-humans." Olaf the dwarf answered laughing uproariously as he joined the two.

"In hindsight...Hey, why you have your crossbow out? And the armour?" Naruto answered before noticing the chain-mail, plaque armour and horned helmet the dwarf was wearing with a small shield strapped on his right arm and his trusty crossbow securely tied on his back.

"Didn't I tell you? I am joining this guild!" the dwarf answered smirking.

"W-What?!"

"Eeeh! I sniffed around a bit and not a soul seems eager to help you and your friends with their forges or by selling you stuff. So, since you saved me, my convoy and the people in it, I felt indebted enough to decide to be the one doing the smiting, forging AND organizing our supplies." Olaf answered shrugging.

"You shouldn't have, Olaf-san." Naruto said with a sad smile.

"It's okay, I used to be an adventurer myself before my former Guild almost went eradicated by a surprise attack of [ _Golem Gorillas_ ]. After burying more than half of my friends I decided to wash my hands of the whole Guild ordeal and be a simple merchant...But truth be told, as soon as I wore back my gear I felt lighter than ever before...I guess my heart is still hungry for adventures, so I hope you won't lead us astray." he answered with a thumbs up.

"Thank you, but nobody said I was the Head of the Guild." Naruto answered grateful.

"Oh! I did! You wanted to be the best? You'll have to be the Guild's Head for that! But don't worry, I know how to organize stuff so I'll help you." Rimuru answered cheerful as he dragged behind himself a human-shaped mountain of rags smelling of cheap booze and dried-up vomit.

"What in the Celestial Forge's name is that thing?" Olaf asked horrified as the rancid smell clinging on the rags was making his eyes water.

"It smells of rotten stuff." Mi whined pitifully as she dry-heaved.

"Please tell me that you are not carrying around a corpse!" Naruto begged covering his nose in despair.

"I am...Not dead...Bastard." the rags slurred in answer.

"This voice...Lord Lars?!" Olaf asked with wide eyes.

"Just Lars, the bastards disgraced me and mah family kicked me out, so I'm goldless and destitute! FUUUUCK!" the former Church soldier bellowed furious as he detached from Rimuru to give a wide punch to the air in front of him, missing Olaf' head by a wide margin due to his shorter height and thus falling face-down to the floor.

"Apparently the death of that Cardinal was not appreciated by the higher-ups in the Church, and since he was the only survivor, the full blame was deemed his. They took away everything he had AND his family cast him away to save themselves from the shame." Rimuru explained sighing.

"That's bullshit!" Naruto replied furious.

"But the kind of bullshit I expect those idiots in charge to pull off. Come on, help me take this poor man inside, he needs a warm bath." Olaf answered sighing as he helped Lars to stand.

"They didn't take ev'rythin'. I kept my lance [ _Longinus]_ and my shield [ _Defender]_ with me...I smelled the shitstorm coming so I have hidden them...Hehehehe! I won in that regard!" Lars explained with a broken laugh as the other two dragged him inside.

"Good job." Naruto answered trying to sound cheerful while the drunkard fell asleep midway to the bathroom.

 **Several Hours later -**

"...Ooow! My head..." Lars groaned in agony as the daylight pierced his sane eye with merciless precision making him fully wake-up from the burning sensation and see the comfy bed he was laying on.

"Good to see you awake, feeling better?" Olaf asked amused, and with a very low voice, as he entered the man's room with a small basin of water in his hands.

"Yes, luckily I was not as drunk as usual when that boy found me, where am I?" the ex soldier asked.

"In the _guest room_ of our Guild, the ' _Monster Star'_ Guild to be precise." the dwarf answered.

"So _Olaf the Hunter_ has returned to be an adventurer?" Lars asked impressed.

"Those are days of long past glory, I am no longer as young as I was three-hundred years ago, I will have to start again from the basics."

"Past it may be, but glory it was nonetheless, look at me instead...How will I be remembered? Will I even be remembered? Or will just history forget about me?"

"Well...I may have a solution for that."

"What are you planning in that head of yours, dwarf?" Lars asked with narrowed eyes.

"Disgrace or not, Lars Bluelette is still recognized as one of the best soldiers the Church of Elrune ever had...And there is a small Guild that may need some help from a veteran warrior like you that knows his way in a fight and other things..."

"Are you asking me to join this place?"

"Why? You have other things to do besides going around smelling like shit and drinking wine and beer with quality even inferior to warm piss?" Olaf asked.

"...Touche." the human answered looking down in shame.

"Good. Now, while I help you cutting that beard and hair so to look presentable, I will give you a rapid run-down of what is happening here and what we'll need to do to make this work. Then we will go recover your lance and shield. Okay?"

"Yes, yes." Lars answered sighing.

"Where is that Hobgoblin?"

"You mean Naruto? He went with Mi to see if somebody can be so gentle as to sell them something, his dealing with that soldier from Barad-Se destroyed his clothes and the simple white shirt and pants I gave him are not exactly armour, so I'll need them to buy some materials if I want to start forging our equipment."

"So you'll forge everything we'll need?"

"It will cost less and have way better quality, my dad was a damn good smith, so I know how to make some Dwarven Smiting myself." Olaf answered proud.

"Some good news finally." Lars commented elated.

 **Meanwhile – with Naruto and Mi -**

"GET OUT! OUT!" the third blacksmith in a row bellowed as he bodily threw both Hobgoblins out of his forge.

"You dirty pig!" Mi roared back only to stop when Naruto's hand grabbed her shoulder.

"It's okay, Mi-chan. If he doesn't want our money then so be it." the reborn shinobi said calmly as he gently pulled the girl away.

"Yeah, scram! I am not wasting my forge for you!" the down-trodden man said snarling, as even if he looked a step close at going destitute and so really needing money, he refused to service the two.

"But he was the last one!" Mi said still angry as they walked away.

"We'll find a solution, don't worry." Naruto answered with a gentle smile that managed to calm her down a little.

"..."

"..."

"Tch! Dirty goblins! I can't understand why they even let them in! Bunch of dirty animals and- _UMPF!_ " the man's tirade stopped when he turned around to slam on something warm and thick as an old tree.

To his surprise what he had walked-in were abs of an absurdly tall man, and as soon as he looked up with his wide eyes he saw an old man with long white hair left unruly look all the way down at him with a scowl, and while the face was riddled in wrinkles, every square inch of the rest of his body was full of muscles even men a fourth of his age could only dream to have.

And the fact that said shirtless old man was also holding one of his heaviest hammers with just a hand proved without a doubt that the muscles were the real deal.

"H-Hello!" the blacksmith squeaked in surprise.

"A forge is never wasted." the man slurred with a deep voice filled by unhealthy quantities of alcohol.

"Y-Yeah?" the other replied with a weak voice.

"Rivers bring water, the sun lights the sky, stars come out at night and blacksmiths forge metals...Is the water of a river wasted? Is the sunlight a waste?" the stranger asked swinging the hammer around only to grow a face of disgust and somehow snapping its metallic handle on his knee with minimal effort.

"N-No?"

"Are the stars a waste of space in the night sky?" the old man asked again while twisting the broken hammer's handle around the blacksmith's neck in a loose knot like a tie.

"No!" the man answered soiling himself.

"Then a forge is never wasted either. You did not forge, so YOU are a waste of space." the old man answered grabbing the blacksmith's face to lift his whole body.

"KYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

 **With Naruto and Mi -**

"Who was it?" the hobgoblin girl asked as they heard the high-pitched scream of fear reach them.

"I have no idea, come on, let's see if we can at least buy the raw materials instead of the finished product." Naruto answered sighing in dismay.

"Have no fear, we personally took care of that already!" a new voice said cheerfully.

"What the?! Alice?" the reborn shinobi gasped in shock.

"Sssh! We are incognito." Albedo answered as both girls forced the hoods of their robes to cover a bit more of their face by pulling them down.

"You escaped again?" Mi asked with a low voice.

"Yep! The castle is boring, I want to live an adventure at least once!" Alice whispered back as the four moved in an empty alley to talk.

"It's dangerous out there, you know?" Naruto answered annoyed.

"We saw that when that psycho kid attacked us after the Cardinal tried to kill us too, thank you." Albedo answered with a scrunched nose.

"Then why are you trying again? You still need a Guild to take a Mission out there." Mi asked huffing.

"That is not a problem anymore." Alice answered showing a fanged smirk.

"Not a problem...Nooo! You didn't!" Naruto said in disbelief.

"Yep! Me and Albedo have officially joined your guild." the snake girl replied smugly.

"You can't! I won't play baby-sitter for you two!" he answered angrily.

"And the King will try to kill us!" Mi added.

"That too."

" _Tch!_ We can defend ourselves, it was thanks to our _Buffs_ too if you won." Albedo answered as the wings on her hips briefly flapped in annoyance.

"Yes, but-"

"You either let us join or you pay us back for all the materials and the equipment we bought with our ( _fathers'_ ) money for your Guild, and we have furnished a state-of-the-art Forge along ordering the best of the best furniture, materials and equipment money can buy. Among _**MANY**_ other things." Alice said crossing her arms and sticking her nose up.

 _Sigh!_ "Fine! How much to we have to pay you? I prefer being penniless than having to worry about your well-being whenever we are outside Serena City's walls." Naruto asked grumbling and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Six-hundred-thousand _Gold Zekros_ and five-hundred _Silver_ s." Albedo answered glaring at him.

"600'000 GZ!?" Naruto asked shrieking.

"...And 500 SZ." Mi added faintly, both having been taught how much even a single Gold Zekro was actually worth by Olaf himself.

100'000 GZ alone was the value of a medium-sized castle in the country-side with annexed private woods for hunting trips, while 10 Silver Zekros a month was enough to give a decent lifestyle a family of four/five commoners for at least a year instead.

(1 GZ= 10 SZ. 1 SZ = 10 Copper Zekros. The _Copper Zekros,_ or _**CZ,**_ are the more common coin used by the populace of the continent, merchants comprised).

"..." the two Hobgoblins could only look at the two girls with bulged-out eyes and slack jaws at the absurd amount of money the two had spent.

"Oh! And by the way, we want them back _**in a week**_ , or there will be interests added." Alice explained.

"..."

"..."

 **One hour later – path outside Serena City -**

"I can honestly say that you did well in accepting their joining." Mi said sighing as the Guild was moving through their first Mission, thus making their existence official.

"Especially since to pay them back we would have needed to raid a small country of anything precious they had." Rimuru added with a defeated tone.

"At least Olaf was happy, he kicked us out of the city as soon as the stuff started arriving so he could organize everything in peace...At least the leather armours are comfy." Naruto answered sighing.

"Olaf promised way better equipment, he even said he would have made it look like your old clothes!" Mi tried saying with a reassuring tone.

"Where did you take all that money even?" Lars, now looking more dignified even if wearing a simple chain-mail armour instead of his old highly-crafted one, asked in disbelief.

"Both our fathers have ' _side businesses'_ that usually bring a nice flow of money in, like that the tax income of their lands can be used solely to help the land grow and prosper instead of also covering our families' expenses." Alice explained.

"Side business?"

"Daddy brings King Leodas extremely-rare monster parts and they sell them while splitting the money once sold, they won't even notice we took those money." Albedo answered.

" _ **ALIIIIIIIICEEEEEEEEE!** "_

" _ **ALBEEEEEDOOOOOOOOO!**_ "

Two screams of utter rage reached them carried by the wind and echoing in unmatched fury and disbelief.

"Unless they decided to check their bank accounts today of all times...Do you mind if we crash at your place for a while? At least until our fathers stop wondering about the _Pros_ and _Cons_ of closing us in an isolated tower for a couple decades as punishment." Alice said nonplussed.

 _Sigh!_ The four members of the Guild sighed as one in answer making the two heiresses smirk in victory.

"We are too much in trouble to turn back now...Whatever, what is this Mission even about?" Naruto asked looking towards the small patch of trees they were walking towards.

"Apparently a small group of _[War Boars]_ decided they liked Serena City enough to move close to it, we'll need to kill the four adults that have been spotted and capture their two newborn ones, the latter because our client wants Rosetta's Inn to make stew with them to celebrate his daughter's wedding. We can keep the pellets and fangs of the adults, but the meat we'll have to bring back." Lars answered while reading from the scroll he had in his hands.

"Sounds pretty straightforward." Naruto commented pleased.

" **I wouldn't be that sure of yourself. War Boars are also called '** _ **The bringers of ruin'**_ **because when more than one is in an area they can literally change the ecosystem since they eat** **EVERYTHING** **and are always hungry, and also, they are easily angered and when furious they can even flatten small hills in a single charge.** " Kurama explained annoyed.

" _So like Baa-chan was when drunk and angry? But with a huge appetite added to it._ " Naruto mentally asked back.

" **Yep!** "

" _Oh, joy!_ " the reborn shinobi thought sarcastically.

"What is the plan?" Albedo asked.

"War Boars have thick skin so we'll need to focus our attacks on three areas: their bellies, their eyes and the inside of their mouth. Those three are the only parts we can damage with our current ' _beginner'_ equipment, even if my lance can pierce their backs as well, without my old armor and just my shield as protection I don't feel at ease taking them head-on." Lars answered.

"As soon as we have done this we'll have Olaf-san create better equipment, but we need at least one Mission completed before they give us the permits to start forging. And also, remember, War Boars can only charge on a straight line, so lulling them into a charge attack is our best bet if we want to have a chance, we'll use few bombs I have prepared to have them trip mid-charge and fall to the side, like that they will expose their bellies for us to attack, in that case we ALL need to focus on one Boar to kill it fast before focusing on the others, okay?" Rimuru said.

"Okay!" the others answered nodding.

"I think I found one!" Alice said with a wide smile as a boar the size of an elephant came into view to uproot a tree and eat its fruits.

" _ **Light Arrow!**_ " the snake girl intoned shooting a small arrow of light from her staff towards the giant boar making it run away squealing scared.

"Ehm...Alice..." Albedo said weakly.

"Come on! This will be easy! They get scared easily!"

"That's because THAT was the newborn one..." Lars answered faintly as the terrain started trembling and a wild boar with black fur and red lines starting from under his eyes and running along its whole body came out of the trees with heavy steps.

It was even more than five times the size of the ' _small one'_ Alice had just scared away.

"Rimuru...Take out the bombs..." Naruto said slowly and with a low voice.

"Okay." the slime mimicking a young boy answered nodding slowly, and once summoned a small chest next to himself, he carefully took out a fat wooden barrel as tall as an adult human.

"So you can use [ _ **Summon:**_ _ **Inventory**_ _ **Chest**_ ]. That spell will be useful." Lars commented as the group slowly took distance from one another, all this under the intense scrutiny of the giant boar.

"Thank you." the slime answered with narrowed eyes.

"Get ready, as soon as that thing falls you'll have to attack it." Naruto said as he moved to stand in front of the barrel.

"What do you plan to do?" Albedo asked.

"I'll be the bait and make that thing run over the barrel. My _[Agility]_ and [ _Evasiveness_ ] are the highest ones in our group." the reborn shinobi explained.

"Be careful." Alice answered as the group moved away and watched Naruto take a throwing knife.

"Good...OVER HERE, YOU FAT BASTARD!" the hobgoblin yelled throwing the knife in the boar's eye making it squeal in fury.

" _ **BUUUUUUUHYYYYYYYYY!**_ " the thing roared as it charged forward with each step utterly destroying the terrain and causing a heavy quake-like tremor in the whole area that made the others stumble a little as they moved away further.

"Closer...Closer..." Naruto muttered as the giant monster loomed closer, so much that the heat of its furious huffing washed over him.

" _ **BUUUUUUUH!"**_

"NOW! **Kage Bunshin!** " the reborn shinobi yelled as he created a Clone so that both could jump high and land on the boar big snout so to use it as a springboard to run up its face.

As expected the monster followed the two hobgoblins with his eyes thus missing or forgetting the strange barrel Naruto was standing in front of, but the thing immediately remembered it when its unstoppable charge brought it right on top of it to feel the barrel explode in an intense ball of fire.

 _ **KRATAKABOOOOOM!**_

The huge barrel of tightly-compressed black powder enriched by the rare unstable mineral known as [ _Exploding Ore]_ detonated as soon as the boar was above it, freeing in an instant the simply ridiculous explosive power hold inside in an explosion that for an instant created a miniaturized sun right under the monster, and the overwhelming blast plus fire caused the boar to fall to the side and skid along the terrain to exhaust the remaining energies of its charge, looking then dazed by the painful landing on its face.

"Attack! Now!" Lars ordered as he raised his shield and readied his lance covering himself in an ocean-blue aura.

"[ **Almighty Charge!** ]" calling-out the skill of his Class ( _Lancer Knight_ ), the disgraced Captain charged forward to plunge his spear deep inside the soft, fur-less belly of the boar.

" **BYUUUUUUUUUH!"** the monster squealed in pain as it trashed wildly while trying to get back on its feet.

"[ **Light Arrow!** ]" Alice intoned as she trusted forward her staff to launch a long bullet of condensed light shaped like an arrow.

"Keep going, Alice! [ **Fire** **Blade** **!** ]" Albedo yelled as her weapon got covered by a weak fire aura as she attacked the downed boar with wide swipes.

" **GRUUUUUUUH!** " the boar growled furious as he regained it footing just in time to have the side of its face pelted by arrows thanks to Mi.

"Smelly Boar!" while still not proficient in Human language, the hobgoblin girl's insults still seemed to anger the monster to the point that smoke could be seen exit its mouth.

"OVER HERE!" they heard Naruto scream in a chorus of his own voice as four identical copies of him pulled on one of the boar's back legs making it stumble.

"YAAAAAAAAAH!" to even the boar's shock, the four Narutos managed to pull away the leg making the boar fall down.

" **Guuuh!** " the glare the hobgoblin received in answer confirmed that the Monster did took well that blow to its pride.

"Need some help?" Rimuru asked as he jumped on the boar's head and turning into a small ball of silver-blue transparent slime to cover one of the Monster's eyes.

"What are you-"

 _Sizzzzleeeeeee!_

" _ **GUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!** "_ the Boar screamed in agony as it started jumping around furiously.

"I am mimicking the acidic spit of a [ _Judge Scorpion]_ I devoured when I firstly came here." Rimuru answered as smoke could be seen rise from where its slime body touched the Monster.

"Then I will help you!" Naruto answered jumping on the boar's head to attack its other eye by plunging the short sword he had deep inside it again and again.

"NOW! It's blind so we can attack its belly and mouth whenever it screams, focus your attacks there!" Lars ordered as soon as it was clear that both eyes of the beast were too damaged to ever recover.

"OKAY!" the girls answered as one.

"[ **Fire Aura!]** " Alice chanted covering the group's weapon in flames.

"It may still be a weak spell, but that thing seems weak to fire, so it will help all the same!" the echidna girl explained as she started pelting the monster with a rapid salvo of small fireballs.

"Good Thinking!" Lars commented as he managed, with great difficulties, to _parry_ one of the boar legs as it stomped down making it stumble enough for the ex-captain to pierce again on the belly with his lance.

"No charge attack?" Mi asked as she instead kept aiming for the beast' mouth whenever it opened its mouth to squeal in pain, doubling the creature's volume of screams by having its gums literally catch fire thanks to the [ _ **Ablaze**_ ] status ailment she managed to inflict it with.

"Its completely blind, for all their strength, War Boars are huge cowards, unless they have a clear view of their target they won't charge in fear to not see where they will go!" Albedo explained as she attacked the monster's belly and the hamstrings of its forelegs.

" _ **BUUUUUUUUUUUHYYYYYYYYYYYY!**_ " the War Boar bellowed in fury as his fur turned completely red and started emitting light while steam started pouring violently out of its mouth and tusks like a steam engine.

"What is happening?!" Naruto asked yelping as he and Rimuru went bucked off from the blind boar.

"It must be a male! It's using its [ **Berserk Rage** ]!" Lars explained with wide eyes.

"And what is that?" Naruto asked as the War Boar seemingly forced its muscles to bulge-out

"In short? Its trump card AND last resort, since it's close at dying that thing it's betting all itself in a last suicide move, that skill its eating away its life force while at the same time augmenting its strength tenfold!" the ex-captain answered as the Guild Members scattered around as the Monster started attacking blindly all around itself.

"That beast is trying to find us by ear!" Albedo said as she barely dodged a new round of stomping that demolished the terrain into a heavy crater.

"Any Ide-WAH!" Naruto yelped as the Boar back-kicked him only to shatter his blade on impact as he tried to defend himself.

"Naruto!" Mi yelled in both fear and rage as she started again to shot arrows, only to watch in dismay as those now bounced away from the monster's hide.

"Its defensive capabilities rose as well!" Lars growled as he grabbed the back of Mi's clothes to drag her away.

"BE CAREFUL!" both Naruto and Human-body-Rimuru yelled as they moved in front of both hobgoblin girl and ex captain to catch the boar's tusk before it could impale both.

"NNNNNNNGH!" both reborn _Chosen Ones_ groaned as they held tightly on the long tusk while the terrain gave-in under them.

" **Don't let go! It will pierce both if you do!** " Kurama yelled in alarm.

" _ **Warning: enact evasive maneuver, at current level even** [Pierce Resistance]_ ** _won't reduce the damage enough to warrant survival_.** " _Great Sage_ added.

"WE KNOW!" both answered annoyed as they started feeling their arms getting fatigued.

"LET HIM GO!" Mi screamed furious as she kept shooting arrows to the bloody holes where the boars eyes were.

"Useless! We can't damage it like this and we can't wait for it to die from it! We need a miracle!" Lars yelled as even his lance now could not pierce the boar's skin.

" _ **BBBBUUUUUUUUHYYYYYYYY!**_ " as if to answer him a second [ _War Boar_ ] came charging towards them.

But to their surprise the second giant boar slammed against the side of the one Naruto and Rimuru were holding down, launching it away in a deafening chorus of breaking bones and the pitiful whine of the dying male boar slumping to the side.

"What the!?"

"Really! I can understand that a former employee in an office may have troubles, but from a former Mercenary that already saved the world once I expected a bit more." a voice said mockingly as somebody jumped down from the back of the dazed second War Boar.

"What the fuck?!" Naruto yelled in surprise.

"What are YOU doing here?!" Lars roared furious.

"After Barad-Se decided to kill me instead of saving me after I gave my whole life to serve them, I decided to switch side and help those two along. But you'll have to explain to King Leodas why I escaped confinement and stole my equipment." the tiny girl Tanya answered with a feral smirk as she shouldered her riffle on her good shoulder since the other was still on a sling.

"You? Help us!? I don't believe you." Alice spat angrily while the female Wild Boar uselessly pawed her fallen mate to try awake it from death.

" _ **Analysis: The girl possesses the Blessing of Ifrion. She is the third Chosen One.**_ " _Great Sage_ confirmed.

" **Yep! She is on our side apparently.** " Kurama added.

"I don't exactly expect you to blindly trust me since I attacked you all not too long ago, but FOR NOW you'll have to trust me until we'll have dealt with this last boar." Tanya answered nonplussed as she took away the bandages around her forehead with a sigh of elation.

"Can you still use your Medallion?" Naruto asked while eyeing the Magical Core hanging around her neck and still lacking the frontal panel.

"Not at all unfortunately, it's a miracle in itself if it can still make me float a little, but flying and most of my Spells are out of the question." She answered as the furious boar turned to glare at them.

"Why you accepted to help us?" Rimuru asked.

"Merely for my own survival, if Barad-Se gets their hands on those three Sleeping Titans, I too will cease to exist just like you others and everything else. Knowing what will happen if THEY win, I decided to join you so to not have some monstrosity erase everything." the small girl answered.

"Well, even if not out of heroism or good intentions...She is still helping." Naruto answered smirking.

"Hopefully she won't betray us."

"If I try, Ifrion will personally burn my soul until it cease to exist. ' _Betrayal'_ has just been erased from my vocabulary." Tanya answered grumbling.

"We'll talk more later, now let's kill that thing! The only good side is that the females of War Boar can't use [ _ **Berserk Rage**_ ], so we may have a chance." Lars said.

"She is also weak towards my [ _Flash Bombs]_ , that is how I made it blindly charge against the male one." Tanya added showing the two canisters dangling from her hip.

"Ca we use them?" Mi asked unsure.

"We are in the same Team. We can." the girl replied rolling her eyes.

"Welcome to the _**Monster Star**_ Guild then, Tanya-chan!" Naruto answered as the female War Boar charged making the group split-up.

"I used to be a middle-aged man before coming here, drop that ' _-chan'_." Tanya hissed in answer.

"Oh!...Sorry about that…" Naruto commented sheepish.

"And do you miss your..."

"Yes, Rimuru. I _miss it_ _."_ Tanya answered growling.

"We'll talk later, okay? We'll swap stories about our old wars."

"If we really have to."

"INCOMING!" Albedo screamed as the War Boar charged them again.

"SCATTER!" Naruto yelled in answer.

 **Several hours later – Serena City – In front of the** _Monster Star Guild_ **HQ -**

"Oooh, God! What a day!" Naruto sighed happily as the group finally returned home.

"So this is the place?" Tanya asked unimpressed.

"Heroes always start little, one day we'll have our own fortress, have no fear." Rimuru, now looking like a watermelon-sized ball of translucent slime held by Mi, answered cheerfully.

"I'll hold you on that, but just to be sure, I'll be the one dealing with management and the like. No offense but of all people present, I am the most qualified one to make sure this works properly instead of mediocre at best." Tanya answered.

"It was that attitude that had you been pushed under that train, try to reign it in a little." Naruto answered cracking his back with a sigh.

"Tch!"

"Very well, I'll go collect our bounty and the permits to FINALLY start our Guild properly, please have the decency to wait for me before having dinner." Lars said as he gave his weapons to Naruto for safe keeping before walking away.

"Okay!"

"We'll go talk with my father about... _Her_...Joining us, at least she won't be arrested on sight by the guards." Alice said sighing in dismay.

"I can tell we'll get some screaming for our running away AND the money we took." Albedo added.

"You don't say!" the other replied in sarcasm as both girls walked away.

"Glad to see them so happy about me being here." Tanya commented huffing as she sat down groaning at the small table in the middle of the Guild's main room.

"Let me give a look at those wounds." Rimuru said with a gentle voice as his slime body jumped on the table to then crawl on her bandaged arm.

" _GH_!" the short girl hissed as she felt something drip on her arm making its wounds sting painfully for few minutes before fading away.

"Done! I still had some high grade healing potion inside my belly, so I used it to heal your arm, now it's fully healed." the reborn slime said eating away the bandages until the girl's arm got free.

"...Thank you." Tanya said with a low voice as she inspected her arm to find it being 100% healthy.

"You are not alone in this mess, we all have been strong-armed into saving Elrune for a reason or another, may as well work together to make those three Titans happy, then we'll be free to live life as we want without other deities interfering. They promised it and I think we can trust them." Naruto said sitting at the same table of the other two Chosen Ones.

"And something tells me our deaths too were not an accident either since I remember your Manga ending quite differently. But I guess they were getting desperate in their need for three worthy Heroes." Rimuru added.

"Yep."

"Huhuhu! I thought your name was familiar and I was right, and while I never was one for such frivolities like mangas, even I heard about your adventures, Uzumaki Naruto-san." Tanya said with a maleficent smirk as she used Japanese honorifics for the first time since she reincarnated in Elrune.

"I go by Namikaze nowadays. Thank you." the hobgoblin answered bitterly.

"The fact remains that, yes, we need to work together in this, so let's make this work and we all will get what we want." the girl confirmed.

"A new life." Rimuru said.

"Becoming the World's Strongest Mercenary." Naruto added.

"A _Peaceful_ new life, one away from the battlefield." Tanya finished nodding.

A somber silence fell between the three as Mi moved to sit on Naruto's lap while the three looked at each other as if to digest their new roles as heroes of Elrune.

"What about the guy with the [ _Hero]_ Title?" Rimuru finally asked.

"Let the fool play around, he is amassing his group of ' _True_ _Nakama'_ to save the World from Evil. It's so cliché it physically hurts to even talk about it." Tanya answered with a grimace.

"Does he at least know what Evil he is supposed to fight?" Naruto asked.

"Not even in the slightest, last report I heard from our spies before attacking you showed him just going around aimlessly to take random missions with his ' _True Best Friends Forever'_ to help whoever they meet." she answered with a scrunched nose.

"So he is _level-grinding_ , I see. Well, I am curious to see how things will evolve since _We Three_ have been asked to save Elrune." Rimuru said curious.

"Me too." Naruto admitted.

"Forgive me if I don't exactly care about this. I say to deal with that boy only should he and his group of bratty friends become an obstacle for us, otherwise, I say to let him play his little fantasy as Hero and ignore him completely, we have bigger fishes to catch." Tanya suggested.

"Cold, but fair."

"Yep!"

"So we really found two more members? Oh, joy! More people for me to equip from head to toe." Olaf said sighing as he entered the Guild followed by a very tall and muscular creature wearing just an improvised loincloth, the giant thing had thick green skin and a small reptilian head that seemed half-way between human and crocodile.

"And what is that?" Mi asked with raised eyebrows.

"That's a [ _Mountain Troll_ ]...And looking at his green skin, he must be one of the exceptionally-rare _Emerald_ _Variation_ one at that." Tanya answered impressed.

"Yep! The poor thing was being sold as a slave and I decided to help him, apparently between his _[Mother Nature's Child]_ Blessing and intelligence the other trolls never wanted him." Olaf explained.

"Other Trolls insult Fist because Fist smart. So Fist run away through big forest and find big city...Guards don't like Fist, but little brother help Fist and gives Fist home." the Troll answered with a low voice.

" **Smart?...SMART?! That thing has -20 in his '** _Intelligence'_ **Chart! How can he be considered smart?!** " Kurama said in disbelief.

" _ **Correction: Normal Trolls register '**_ _-60'_ _ **in Intelligence, by Trolls' standards,**_ _Fist_ _ **is indeed very smart.**_ _" Great Sage_ answered.

" **Show off. I too would have said that if I analyzed the thing, I just didn't** **think about it** **.** " the Biju turned Blessing commented huffing.

" _ **Answer: My win. :)**_ **"**

"Well, it is nice to know you joined us, Fist. Welcome to our Guild, wanna be friends?" Naruto said smirking and presenting his hand.

"F-Friend? You Friend of Fist?" the Troll asked in disbelief.

"Of Course-KYAAAH!" the reborn shinobi had barely the time to answer before the Troll caught him in a bear hug and started spinning him around.

"HAHAHAHAHA! FIST HAS FRIEND! YOU FIST FIRST FRIEND! HAHAHAHAHA!" the Troll yelled happily.

"H-HEEEEELP!" the Hobgoblin yelled making the others jump to his rescue before the overly-enthusiastic Troll could hug him to death.

 **Meanwhile – Royal Castle of Serena City – Throne Room -**

"I am going to regret this..." King Leodas grumbled face-palming.

"You know fully well that sooner or later this would have happened." the snake woman sitting beside the king on her own throne answered patting his hand with hers.

"And trying to stop them will just make them more eager to run away again." Ainz added from the sidelines making both Alice and Albedo smile sheepishly in answer.

 _Siiiigh!_ "Fine...I am giving you permission to join that Hobgoblin's Guild BUT!" Leodas said before abruptly stopping his daughter's cheering by rising his voice.

"But?"

"You'll be extra careful, write everyday, train hard and do not bother those people."

"That's it?" Alice asked hopeful.

"No, there are at least other three dozen conditions you two must follow, first of all STOP SPENDING MY MONEY!" Leodas answered making both shrink.

"Your money?" Ainz asked with crossed arms.

"Yours?" the man's wife added with a raised eyebrow.

"..Our money?" the King said with a weak chuckle.

"Bah! They won't spend YOUR PART, but if they need extra cash, they can ask me...WITH MODERATION."

"YAY! Thank you mum!" Alice said happily.

"...Fine! I will spare some change myself." Ainz added rolling his flaming eyes once fell for the puppy-dog look Albedo gave him.

"Thank you, daddy!"

"You two are spoiling them." Leodas commented grumbling.

"Now move along, girls! You will take this Guild affair seriously, it is not a game ESPECIALLY for that poor Hobgoblin." the Queen ordered with a gentle smile.

"Of course, Mum!" Alice answered as she and Albedo hurried away.

"..."

"...Come on, talk, you old fool." Ainz said sighing.

"I don't like this! My baby is still too young to be an adventurer!"

" _Nnngh_!" both Queen and Dark Lord groaned as the King started a new round of whining about his little Alice being unsafe while taking Missions for a Guild.

"You know what? I'll see if my nephew too can join that Guild, she'll keep both our daughters straight and out of trouble, happy?" Ainz offered looking particularly annoyed.

"You mean the bookworm?"

"I prefer the term ' _Very accomplished Scholar'_ , Thank you." the living skeleton answered bitterly.

"Please see if she is interested, if you don't mind. Thank you, Ainz." the Queen answered grateful.

"Think nothing of it, Aly. I know how this fool feels, so with that excuse I will appease my own anxiety as well." Ainz answered nodding.

"Alice…" The King muttered sobbing at his daughter's even too fast growth into a woman.

 **Meanwhile – Monster Star Guild -**

The now officially-recognized Guild was having a celebratory dinner when the main door almost went smashed down by somebody overdoing in knocking.

 **WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!**

The poor wooden frame trembled heavily under the assault.

"Who you? You no friend?" Fist asked growling.

"Let me in, I need to use the bathroom!" the man on the other side answered yelling as he finally broke down the door to enter.

"Stupid door...Hey, this isn't my home..." the old man uttered in distaste before falling down face-first to snore loudly while hugging the _welcome_ mat on the floor tightly against his chest.

"Guest for the night then?" Lars asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Another drunkard? My Guild is not a recovery center for alcoholics!" Naruto answered whining.

"HEY! I was just having a bad week! I don't usually drink that much!" the ex-captain answered blushing madly.

"Whatever, help me take this poor bastard inside, by now I know how to do this." Olaf asked sighing as he helped the old man to stand.

"Hey...You smell like a forge! I like that smell!" the old man wheezed laughing to himself.

"Glad to hear that." Olaf answered rolling his eyes.

"And you, Hobgoblin?"

"Yes?" Naruto asked while helping Olaf bu holding the old man by his other arm.

"Why you smell like some Divine Class ingredient?"

"Eh?"

"Your satchel. Divine Class component for weapon forging. Why?" the old man asked looking straight in the reborn shinobi's eyes.

"I am looking for a man, a great blacksmith that can turn it into a weapon for me. I only know his name is Andre." Naruto answered.

"Tough luck, Andre the Blacksmith is a living legend, nobody can find him as apparently he is always on the move. Let me give a look at that thing and I'll see if I can do something myself." Olaf answered sighing.

"Bwahahahahaha! You are looking for Andre? Well, consider yourself lucky as you have found him! Bwahahahahaha-BUUUUAAAARGH!" the old man said laughing uproariously, so much that his stomach lurched and he puked on the floor.

"..."

"...Olaf, I believe your ' _Living Legend'_ just projectile vomited on our new carpet." Rimuru commented dryly as he moved away his plate having clearly lost his appetite.

"And I think he also peed himself, and as luck would have it, it happens to be your turn for cleaning detail." Tanya added shaking her head with a sigh.

"Zzzz!" in answer the old man simply fell asleep once again.

"Hurray." Olaf answered with a defeated sigh.

"Well, look at the bright side, once cleaned-up you will see a great Blacksmith in action!"

"Just shut-up, Naruto. Please." the dwarf begged with dropped shoulders.

Another day passed, and another step was took by Naruto and his friends on the path that one day will bring them to greatness!

" _Buuuuaaaargh!_ "

"OH, FOR FUCK SAKE!"

Well, everybody always starts little, after all...

 **Omake – Auditions for a new Guild Member -**

"NEXT!" Naruto called-out as he, Rimuru, Tanya and the others sat at a table to see who wanted to join their Guild.

"Good Evening." the young man with long black hair and spiked armor said with a cold voice and walking to stand in front of the table.

"Your name and reason for joining." Tanya asked looking even unimpressed.

"I am John Dark, I saw my father die at the hands of my uncle and my mother burn alive when a meteor fell on her head. Now I travel the land looking for revenge so to quench the emptiness clutching to my heart as I walk in this land of sorrow and tears called life. I am-"

"NEXT!" Rimuru said immediately as the sheer _Emo-ness_ permeating the boy was summoning depressing rain even inside the Guild.

"Nobody understands my pain and anguish, this world is just a blank-" the boy kept saying as Lars kinda pushed him out to slam the door on his face.

"Always more angsty teens looking to be heroes nowadays, I wonder why this happens." Olaf commented erasing the boy's name from the list of candidates.

"HIIIIII! I am Michael! I love everybody and I am sure that the Power of Friendship will save the world! Come on! Let's be Nakam- _ **BANG!**_ " what the overly-cheerful boy was about to say went suddenly interrupted when Tanya's riffle turned his head into a fine red mist with a well-placed bullet.

"Next!" she barked making the others quietly scoot their chairs a bit away from the tiny girl just in case she shoot again.

"Hello! I am Alice Anastasia Bella Dementia Wallflower Autumn Rose Hypothermia Swan. I can shoot lasers from my eyes, fart missiles, my sweat cures cancer and my tears can end World's hunger, I can resurrect the dead, fly, everybody loves me as soon as the meet me and I can do everything, and I already know everything. My eyes are silver-blue-grey-yellow-brown but become gold with green-red-bronze-pearl undertones in the light of the full moon of august while my hair are platinum with purple streaks. I always wear clothes that do not much the time period or setting and I can-" The endless chatter of the deranged girl stopped when Fist grabbed her and beheaded her with a bite.

"Oooh! Fist loves eating Mary Sues! They taste like candy and poor character development!" the Troll said happily as he kept munching on her body making rainbows and kittens drip from her body instead of blood.

"It's his blessing, he is naturally immune to them and can hurt them." Olaf explained to Naruto.

"Ooh!" the reborn shinobi nodded in answer.

"Next!" Rimuru asked as soon as Fist finished eating.

"THERE ARE TOO MANY BOYS HERE! WHERE ARE THE WOMEN? GIRL POWER! SEXISM! MYSOGINY! MUH FEELIN- _ **BANG!**_ "

"Next!" Tanya ordered while her trusty riffle was still smoking from the recent shot.

"Ehm..." the man said peeking inside and watching the corpse lacking the head right in front of the door.

"We do not accept Emos, Mary Sues and Gary Stues, extreme feminist/misogynist, people that just want to have a Loli Harem, idiots that just want to fuck, people that think with their privates and always end up in ecchi situations and morons that believe everything can be fixed only with the power of Friendship. If you fit in one of those categories you better run before she starts shooting again." Lars suggested plainly and without lifting his eyes from his papers.

"I'll look elsewhere then..." the young man answered as he backed away.

"We'll never find a new member, isn't it?" Mi asked with a defeated tone.

"Well...We still have four-hundred names to go through though." Olaf answered.

The rest of the Guild groaned in chorus at that.

 **EXTRA LONG CHAPTER! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!**

 **I have no idea, it just happened, just don't get used to it, I still want 7/8k words chapters for this story XD.**

 **A bit of faster development this time, so that from next chapter I will be able to focus on the Guild new ' _Toys'_ (Especially Naruto's) and their first forays in the lands of Elrune as a Guild.**

 **This was the fifth Chapter, it's time for the Plot to gain a bit more speed and move along, don't you think?**

 **I imagined Fist to be like the troll in the first Harry Potter movie, only with a more reptilian head similar to Killer Croc of Batman.**

 **I am deeply sorry if somebody got offended by the Omake, it was just something I did for a bit of fun, not a statement about anything!**

 **Except Mary Sues, I hate Mary Sues.**

 **In fact, a couple of _infamous_ cases have been mentioned in the girl's name, one was Alice from the Resident Evil movies, but the others? Did you spot them? XD**

 **See you around for the next update, Bye-Bye!**

 **Tr230.**


	6. Chapter 6

**I am back. And I am looking for a "Decent" Beta Reader to help me fix my stories, the last I had apparently was not good enough while the one before, while Perfect, had his own life schedules so unfortunately we had to part ways.**

 **I am back as a "Thank you" to my very few Fans and as a "GO FUCK YOURSELF!" to my not-beloved haters.**

 **For you others, that had always accepted my stories no matter the IMMENSE quantity of flaws they have (I KNOW ABOUT THEM, BUT FOR THE LIFE OF ME I CAN'T SEEM TO BE ABLE TO FIX THEM…) I thank you for the kind and nice words you leave behind and all the support you give me.**

 **You help the last weak sparks of Hope for Humanity I have to not die.**

 **Also, just in case some of those _Human Failures_ do manage to find an Admin still alive in that barren "Valley of Death" that is this place's "User Support", I have started to post my own original work elsewhere under a different Alias, that of course I am not divulging just in case the _Human Shit-stains_ decide to go the extra mile to be as much hideously garbage as they already are and come bothering me even there.**

 **It's a Chinese-style 'Wuxia Novel': Reincarnation, Cultivation, Martial Arts...You know, the Works.**

 **It surely is less 'constricting' than writing a Fanfiction since I create my own Characters instead of using 'famous' ones, less of a hassle about Canon too! It's Amazing. *. ***

 **So, as you can see, I do have contingency plans! If I can't write here, I will write elsewhere and simply leave you _Sub-human_ _s_ _(_ AKA _'_ _Haters')_ behind. **

**Have a Good Day!**

" **You bastard"** \- demon talking / jutsu

"Let's finish this" - dialogue

" _Can it get any worse?_ " - during flashback/thoughts

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or whatever I will use here in this fic.**

 **A certain blond in an RPG World Chapter 6: Meeting the holder of the [Hero] tittle sure is leaving a sour taste in our mouths! Should we tell him he won't be the real Hero in this mess or should we spare him the agony of being simply a "Side Character" with a nice title attached to it and keep quiet?**

 **Far away from Serena City – Path towards the mountains -**

Galloping at high speed through the dusty streets leaving behind them the capital city of the Devan kingdom, the four members of the ' _Monster Star_ ' Guild **Main Attack Team** chatted bored to pass the time before their arrival while riding a giant lizard each, the animals had bright-yellow scaled skin and long barbs under their chins that were slightly dragging on the floor leaving behind faint scratch marks.

[ **Current Team Formation:]**

 **Naruto**

 **Rimuru**

 **Tanya**

 **Mi**

"So, why only us four?" Rimuru asked curious.

"Somebody had to stay behind to help Olaf keep Andre in check, and no matter how smart he is compared to other Trolls, I preferred to leave Lars too behind to help Fist." Naruto answered sighing.

Andre the Legendary Blacksmith: Naruto has been told by Olaf and other people tales of the man whose talent as a blacksmith was rumored to be envied even among the Gods in Heaven and the Demons in Hell; the very last remaining survivor of the destruction of an entire kingdom when his king went mad and used himself and his personal guards for a ritual that backfired and burned the whole land to a crisp, and considering that he had took part to the initial preparations for that ritual, it was no surprise that the guilt still followed him to this day as he kept drinking himself into a drunken stupor hoping to silence the voices of the victims.

He had made clear, once sobered-up, that he wasn't joining the Guild but just hanging around long enough to forge a weapon for Naruto using the fang Malvas gifted him along teaching a thing or two to Olaf, the latter because apparently the dwarf was so 'Ignorant' about the **True Way of the Forge** for Andre's tastes to leave the man appalled at the sorry state of the current knowledge of the Dwarf Race in this field when compared to him.

And even if greatly insulted at the beginning, Olaf had been forced to eat his words when Andre produced armours and equipment for everybody in the Guild in such a short time and with such high level of quality (considering the quality of the raw materials they had at hand as a starting Guild) to leave the dwarf weeping in shame before focusing only on creating Naruto's new weapon.

That was a month ago, and still the man had not finished! He had kept working 24/7 without a single pause since day 1 and was still producing a light and heat so intense from the forge that people outside had started to wonder if he was instead creating a second sun, so much that guards had been stationed there by King Leodas to ease the population's increasing anxiety about catastrophic world-ending explosions.

Still, the equipment was very nice, and Olaf promised that thanks to Andre's teachings he will personally ' _update them_ ' to always be Top-of-the-line whenever better materials were supplied to him; but although Rimuru thought his new clothes and the ones of everybody else were cool, he still found Tanya's own uniform, hat and furred-neck long coat to be still a bit too much ' _Nazi-looking_ ' for his tastes, even if kinda slightly different in look and with their Guild symbol instead of a _swastika_ on them, but the girl seemed so unfazed by it that he simply minded his own businesses.

And so, here they were in their twentieth Mission so to build funds to enlarge their Guild and its influence enough to try understand under what rock the King of Barad-Se had hidden himself to plan his conquest of the whole planet.

Rimuru was still wearing his furred coat over a kimono like before, but with a clear increase in quality and stats, Naruto wore a perfect replica of his old shinobi attire sandals comprised and Mi... _Eh_! What about her…

Andre described it as: [ "A dress made with dark magic, and bound together with Mithril-like threads from my personal reserves. It will evolve with her following her Leveling-up and chosen Evolution. Zero need for maintenance, cleaning or spare parts! It's Pierce Resistant, Blunt Resistant, Cut Resistant and Slash Resistant. It can't be burnt, dissolved or frozen...And it breaths like _Fengyptian Cotton_! Very classy." ]

Even if nobody fully understood what all of that was about, the thing was still a very nice white and blue attire that did wonders to her natural beauty causing the envy of every girl that looked at her, young or noble, especially for the ' _daring_ ' top that was cut short to show her midriff.

So while all of them seemingly wore normal clothes, in truth those garments offered ten times more protection than a full set of knight class heavy steel armor, but without being any heavier than normal clothes.

"You and Naruto can eat literally everything and get stronger from that, Mi needs this to level-up and I am still in probation even if I officially joined this Guild some time ago. We had no choice since we still lack more members." Tanya added annoyed.

"And Albedo with Alice?" Mi asked.

"I sent them to run a little errand for us, apparently Albedo's father has asked to his niece to join us so to help those two girls and 'Pay us back' for them forcing their stay in the Guild. So I sent them to organize the lab and library that girl will need to become our 'Researcher' and 'Potion Mistress'." Rimuru answered shrugging.

"Cool." Naruto answered nodding.

"So! This should be easy: a colony of crystal-eating scorpions has took residence in one of the mines in Olga Town down south, right in the middle of the giant 'Iron Sand Desert', and we need to exterminate them if we want Serena City and surrounding places to not lose a great deal of materials for forges, Magicians and Alchemists alike...So be ready to sweat a lot between those dunes, luckily the King alerted their mayor that a Guild of Monsters was coming to help." Tanya said sighing once finished reading once again the details of their new mission.

"Do you want to store that coat in our Inventory Chest?" Rimuru offered smiling.

"Please do, until we find that [ _everlasting ice]_ for the cooling runes, that thing will be too hot to wear in a desert."

"How far is that place even?" Mi asked bored.

"At this speed, we'll need two weeks to go there and other two to return. We can't use horses or they will die in a day or two from the heat once we get there." Tanya answered.

"Two weeks?!" Naruto shrieked.

"Yeah, we'll need to find another method of transportation if we want to travel the world, let's just hope that by the time we get there they won't have already fixed the problem, or we will throw away money instead of making some." Rimuru answered deflating a little.

"In that case the Guild Association will cover our expenses following the modified contract we signed with them; at best we'll go even, instead of lose money." Tanya corrected him with a feral smile.

"Yep! Leaving you in charge of the bureaucratic stuff was a nice choice, they never found those hidden clauses you added until it was too late."

"I know." she answered in cruel satisfaction.

"We need a flying ship! Do they exist?" Mi said excited.

"Only in fairy-tales, to my knowledge."

"Aaaw!"

\- **Two weeks later – Olga Town -**

Having traversed jungles, swamps and mountain ranges alike, with several stops in and around various outposts between Serena City and their destination, the three Chosen Ones (plus Mi) finally arrived at the entrance of Olga town just a day later than anticipated, and while still panting from the absurd heat pervading the air, they rapidly neared the tall doors signaling the entrance of the small heavily-fortified mining town hidden between the tall dunes of dull-gray sand in the middle of the giant Iron Desert.

"This is literally iron dust, how?" Rimuru asked in surprise.

"Beats me. But that guy must be the Mayor." Naruto answered as a man with wide flowing robes exited the tall door accompanied by a dozen guards.

"And you are?" the tall man with heavily-tanned skin asked with narrowed eyes while preparing an arrow on his own bow to accompany his guards doing the same behind him.

"Greetings. We are the members of the ' _Monster Star'_ Guild of Serena City, I hope his Majesty King Leodas alerted you that we were coming as he was the one you personally asked help to." Tanya answered nonplussed as she dismounted from her ride to walk towards the Mayor and show him her ID, the business card she prepared with the symbol of her Guild and a copy of the Mission request.

"Yes, I was told that a Guild with Monster members would have come, so it is you then?" the old man replied scanning the documents.

"Yes, here is the others IDs, as the only human in this formation, I knew that you would feel better talking with me compared to them." Tanya answered while behind her Rimuru turned into his true from (a ball of translucent slime the size of a watermelon) for an instant before taking back his human appearances.

"I-I am not racist!" the Mayor said immediately.

"Nobody says you are." Naruto replied smirking.

"Hey...Isn't she ' _ **Tanya the Argent**_ '?" one of the guards muttered unsure to his companions.

 _Sigh!_ "Yes, I am. But I switched alliance to King Leodas and this Guild once me and my previous employers had a divergence of opinions." the small girl answered sighing annoyed.

"Divergence..."

"They wanted me to die while I wanted to live, Mayor. VERY contrasting opinions." she replied simply.

"I see, well, if King Leodas accepted your Guild as a proper one, then I guess we can trust you. Follow me, I'll show you the mines we need you to clean-up." the tanned man finally said motioning the rest of the group to dismount and follow him inside.

 **\- Inside the small town -**

"Our main source of income are the mines where we dig-out enough crystals and ores to satisfy almost 45% of the needs of half the continent, compared to other zones, our small town has been built on one of the richest segments of the underground. Unfortunately, the new galleries we have recently created happened to connect to a nest of giant scorpions we discovered being particularly addicted to eating them." the Mayor explained as he brought them to a squared fortress built in the outskirts of the town.

"It's strange to see a mine right in the middle of the desert, Mister..."

"Daneb."

"Mister Daneb." Rimuru admitted in confusion.

"Hehehe! That would be thanks to that genius of my Grandfather! He used to work in some dwarf-owned mines as a slave to repay a few debts he amassed in his youth and while there he learned, by chance, that those midgets had a special instrument able to detect where ore and crystals could be harvested.

Once stolen that he broke free and ran away chased by those angry dwarves, and during his escape he passed by here to hide where he felt that magical gadget of his almost break-down as it found a _huge_ mass resource to be mined...Long story short, once escaped and as soon as things calmed down, he gathered few desperate bastards like him and created Olga Town.

Every once in a while few Dwarf Kings throw a stint because we used their sacred divining rod to find this treasure, but other than pretend the staff back, they can't pretend ownership of this place." Daneb answered smirking.

"So you dig downward?"

"Pretty much, it's more like a giant hole drilling straight down with several smaller horizontal tunnels spreading out wherever there is a good concentration of stuff to find."

"And now you have Crystal-Eating Scorpions roaming around." Mi said.

"Yes. They are eating our stock, our money! Luckily we managed to seal-off the tunnel leading to their nest, otherwise they would have invaded the whole facility." the man replied looking depressed.

"Any idea how to do this?" Naruto asked.

"We have prepared some bombs, the plan is to kill them and use those explosives to have the whole cave collapse, just in case there are other nests near them. Our expert in Monsters says that we should hurry as those [ _Crystal Scorpions_ ] are getting ready for their breeding period, if we don't hurry up their numbers will grow tenfold in a month and we will be overrun."

"...You waited before calling for help, isn't it? The situation can't be this bad out of the blue, without any build-up." Rimuru asked with narrowed eyes.

"...Ehm...Eeeh..." the Mayor muttered ashamed as the group of heroes glared fiercely at him.

"The time needed to come here from Serena city is simply too long, and yet you asked for help to the King himself instead of asking one of the many branches of the Guild Organization closer to this place, and holding up for all this time against something like an entire colony of monsters instead of just a few wandering ones popping-up without a warning either means you were expecting this to happen or that you are so paranoid to actually waste resources to create counter-measures for every situation, and that is hard to believe considering the sheer expenses for doing something like that and keep it running."

"Unless you were secretly looking for those scorpions' nest and underestimated their numbers." Naruto added with crossed arms.

"That too is a possibility."

"..."

"..."

"...OKAY! OKAY! I admit it! We discovered the nest of those scorpions two years ago and have been using them to sniff-out new sources of crystals and ores since they are always hungry and can find them easily. But we were careful! We used selective breeding and always kept their numbers in check by making their eggs disappear without them knowing when they laid too many..." the old man admitted with a tired and yet angry growl.

"Let me guess, you missed few eggs and now, two years later, you have lost control of the whole colony as instead of a dozen or so, you have few hundreds of them running around and you are at wits end and desperately need help."

"...Yes! And now even our best countermeasures are failing! We have been holding-up ever since we sent the Mission request, but the doors we set-up keep being smashed through and we lose guards by the dozens to change them!" the Mayor answered breaking-down into desperate sobs.

"Kurama told you he was a liar, isn't it?" Rimuru whispered to Naruto.

"Yep! Just like [ _Great Sage_ ] did with you, they detected his lies and holding secrets straight away." the reborn shinobi confirmed.

" _Cheat Abilities_ sure are nice to have."

"Yep!"

 _Sigh!_ "Okay, we will clean-up your mess. But since this comes from your ineptitude, other than the promised pay, we want free reign on the carcasses of those scorpions." Tanya offered, completely uninterested in the man's grief.

"Ugh! Fine! But we will get the content of their stomach! Just in case the crystals they eat turn into something else once digested!" the Mayor countered immediately.

"You mean their poo?" Naruto asked making Mi grimace.

"Before the stuff reaches that stage, of course." the tanned man said with a dead-pan tone.

"No, we will take that as well. We are dealing with bigger trouble than advertised, so the price for our services will change accordingly." Tanya said sneering.

"Too much! You can have a third!"

"Half of it. Take it or we get back to Serena City and you and this small bunch of barracks get submerged in giant scorpions." she countered unmovable.

"ARGH! Fine! Half the total content of their stomach and free reign on their corpses along the normal pay! You win!" the Mayor roared in rage.

"Very well, now show us the place and let us do our job." Tanya ordered simply as she marched forward.

"It's nice to have a cut-throat businesswoman in the Team." Naruto admitted snickering as they followed her and the weeping Mayor inside the fortress.

"That girl can be scary, you know? I saw fangs in her mouth." Mi admitted shivering.

" **Hey! There is a telepathic message coming from '** _ **Loli Satan**_ **', she is sending** **it** **with her medallion, want to hear it?"** Kurama asked while using his own nickname for Tanya.

" _Okay, send it in! I guess Rimuru too and Mi will hear it._ " he answered as he saw the slime and Hobgoblin girl develop for an instant a far-away look in their eyes.

" _Can you hear me? Good! I say we also plunder as many crystals we can while fighting those things, since we are risking our lives, I think we can take few liberties. At worst we'll say the scorpions ate more than they expected. Okay?"_ the echoing voice of the small girl came as soon as Kurama accepted the transmission, holding in those words cold logic more than the greed one might expect.

" _I don't like this._ " Naruto replied.

" _Please, dear ninja. You mean this is the first time you were asked to steal something? I thought you others were mercenaries. You are not a_ Shonen Hero, _but a REAL, living and breathing human with all the good and bad sides that come with it...I know that in reality your life and '_ Job' _were fairly different from what could appear in a Manga._ " she replied with an amused smirk surfacing on her face as she walked.

"... _Okay, fine! Just because we may need those resources someday in the future._ " he conceded with a suffering sigh.

" _Glad to see that you do possess common sense. What about the Slime?_ "

" _The Slime has a name, and I agree. Even if I don't like this myself, but for now, we are in dire need of founds and resources, especially if I want my side-project for a Monster Village to work._ " Rimuru answered annoyed.

" _Good! Then it's decided, we'll add some rare crystal to our collection as soon as those men are not watching_." Tanya declared in satisfaction just as the group reached a tall iron gate.

"Beyond here there is the main tunnel, we evacuated the place completely so you won't have hindrances while me and my men will guard this side of the gate. Go to the giant elevator in the middle and use the lever labeled '14 E', it will bring you right in front of the sealed tunnel, then use this key to enter and PLEASE, close it behind you. Just in case." the Mayor explained while giving a hexagonal rod-shaped key to Rimuru.

"We will fix this in a flash, have no fear!" Mi said with a determined smile.

"I really hope so." the man answered deflating a little as he watched the four enter and close the gate behind themselves.

"...I have some doubts they will manage, but if we are lucky they will still cut the number of scorpions down to a level that the next group we call will finish the job." he then said as soon as he saw them go down with the giant elevator covering the main tunnel of the mines.

"Should I prepare the Mission Request once again?" a guard asked.

"Yes, but let's wait a couple days before sending it out, just in case."

"Yes, sir!"

"The eggs?"

"The batch is in a safe storage, Mayor! The healthiest ones of the bunch, as you ordered."

"Good! let's remember to not screw-up next time."

 **Meanwhile – With the Monster Star Party Members -**

The elevator the group was riding was a giant round platform acting as the lid of the main tunnel that could then be lowered or raised to bring outside the filled carts, the only light in there and the smaller tunnels came from the sparse tiny bundles of light-emitting clear crystals left untouched above the entrance of each hole and along the walls in a mockery of crude chandeliers.

" **[** _ **Light Crystals]:**_ **special crystals able to** **absorb Magic particles in the air and use them** **produce** **a** **faint light. Normally used as a source of light. No other uses exist."** Kurama explained once prompted.

"This thing is too slow, if we need to escape they will catch us." Mi said, looking worried as the giant platform kept descending at a snail pace.

"I wouldn't worry about that if I were you, girl. Your beloved mate-" Tanya started answering with a bored tone.

"Boyfriend, not mate. Just because we are not Humans it doesn't mean we are animals." the Hobgoblin girl interrupted her huffing childishly.

"Whatever. As I was saying, your Boyfriend can easily run on the wall while carrying you, me and Rimuru will simply fly upward, we are using this thing just for the sake of appearances. I don't trust that man." the loli soldier finished saying while her medallion started shining in a bright crimson light as soon as her body started floating at a feet from the ground.

"Andre fixed it good, eh?" Naruto asked smirking while pointing at the new faceted glass panel on the front of the tiny girl's pendant.

"He fixed that and half a dozen of other _kinks_ it had, now I see why Barad-Se has a whole department dedicated to hunt that man down! How can a drunkard surpass the assets of an entire kingdom that every day combs the land to employ/coerce the greatest minds alive to work for them? And while working completely ALONE at that?"

"Ancient teachings, it seems that just like in works of fantasy of our old worlds ancient teachings and forgiven techniques still surpass modern knowledge on some degree." Rimuru answered shrugging and unsheathing his sword.

"We have arrived, and those must be the bombs the Mayor talked about." he then said when the platform stopped moving and a dozen barrels came into view next to a sturdy-looking metallic door.

"Will that hatchet last this time?" Tanya asked amused while loading her riffle and taking aim.

"Andre said he was taking extra care to make my weapon last for millenniums, just to counter my bad luck with them." the reborn shinobi answered rolling his eyes as he and the Slime walked forward with the two girls remaining slightly behind to offer long range support and covering fire.

"We are ready." Mi muttered as she loaded an arrow with a wicked-looking jagged head on her new hunting bow.

"Do you hear anything?" Naruto asked whispering.

"...Nothing at all, it's either that the door is too thick for me to hear anything, or that those things still have to venture out here." the Slime answered while still trying to hear what was happening behind the door.

"Let's go, wasting time here won't help." Tanya issued while eyeing the abandoned carts around them still overflowing in materials.

"How nice of them, they already prepared our loot for us." she whispered amused.

* Tcha-Clang! Trarararararararang! *

The dull and loud sound of the metallic door swinging open echoed in the entire mine for several seconds making the four take in a sharp breath.

* Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! Tak! *

With a sound similar to raindrops hammering on steel, the ground trembled a little for a stampede of thin claws as a horde of horse-sized scorpions with shiny grey carapaces came out from the darkness and completely covering the tunnel, even walking over each other in their haste to run outside.

"SHIT!" Naruto yelled with wide eyes.

"INCOMING!" Rimuru added paling considerably.

"Do not destroy the bodies! We need their corpses!" Tanya ordered as her riffle got covered in a golden aura.

"[ _ **Concussive Bullets!**_ ]" she yelled as every shot of her weapon produced a bullet exploding by itself once at an inch from her target's head to produce an explosion of sound and compressed air blowing the scorpions back.

"Survival first! Profit second!" Mi shrieked in answer as she started shooting arrows as fast as she could to pierce their brains before they could reach her.

"Yaaaah! Naruto yelled as he kept attacking, and even if the monsters' skin was too tough for his hatchet to cut through, using it as a hammer still produced results, even if the blade was soon reduced to a stump under the brutal treatment.

" _ **[Flame Bullet!] [Ice Bullet!] [Lightning Bullet!]**_ " Rimuru in the meantime kept pelting the living wall of poisoned stingers and sharp claws in front of him with dozens of bullets of condensed elemental magic.

"They don't seem to be weak to any particular element!" he then said as soon as he ran out of Elements while he still kept launching magical bullets.

"[ _ **Graviga!]**_ _"_ Naruto intoned summoning a dome of gravitational force on the incoming new wave of monsters making their whole bodies develop deep cracks from where short bursts of purple blood flowed out as soon as they went slammed on the floor.

"H-How many?!" Mi asked in dread as her fourth quiver ran out of arrows forcing her to use poisoned ones, that while unable to poison the beasts, could at least still pierce their bodies.

"We reached two hundred." Tanya answered nonplussed as she kept summoning barriers in front of her and the hobgoblin girl to stop the scorpions' charge and carefully take aim.

"No I mean how many before they stop coming!" the other replied faintly as the mountain of corpses in front of them didn't deter the monsters that instead steamrolled forward pushing their dead brethren aside uncaring.

"Ah, that! I have no clue." the loli soldier replied laughing as if greatly entertained by the situation.

"This is not anger, this is blind hunger! They must have run out of crystals down there and now are ready to eat everything in their path to fill their stomach! Even living things!" Rimuru guessed as his body rippled to swallow a scorpion whole as soon as this tried to pierce his stomach with its stinger.

"How does it taste?" Naruto asked curious while head-butting one of those beasts making its head cave-in in a perfect imprint of his forehead.

"...Strangely fruity, with a hint of ginger. And Glass, it's like munching on a piece of glass." the Slime replied grimacing.

"Weeell, beggars ain't choosers! And I need to replenish my Mana..." the reborn shinobi answered unsure before biting down hard on the scorpion he was wrestling with and adding a feral bite-mark to the blow on its head.

"Shit...The consistence is shit, but the taste is nice." he admitted impressed.

"Are they really that good?" Mi asked curious.

"Sorry, but I have more pressing matters to worry about!" Tanya answered unconcerned.

"...Hey! It seems like the flood is diminishing, maybe they are pulling back?" Rimuru asked hopeful.

"[ _ **Shadow Fire**_ ]! I really hope so!" Naruto answered as he watched the shadow-like fire he summoned burn the life-force of the monsters in front of him into nothingness while leaving behind the bodies completely unscathed.

" **Okay, we will file that spell under '** _ **Creepily Evil'**_ **and use it only when you feel particularly rotten inside."** Kurama admitted, unnerved by the effect of that Spell.

Jokes aside, it was only one hour later that the scorpions finished coming, leaving the four panting exhausted and resting on the lifting platform since the arrival point and the tunnel beyond the door were completely packed in dead monsters acting as a nice wall of dead meat reaching half the tunnel and almost overflowing down the main chute if not for the lift completely sealing the lower floors.

"Okay, I say we first collect those while we recover our strength and then we explore inside just in case other scorpions are still there, especially if they already started laying eggs." Tanya offered with a tired sigh while using the corpse of one of said monsters to lie on.

"Approved!" the other three answered breathing heavily.

"You think they know things were this bad?" Naruto asked.

"This many? No, I don't think so. Materials gathered from [Crystal Scorpions] are very valuable, even if they come from 'baby ones', so I guess they have no idea it was this many in that nest, otherwise they would have never accepted to let us take as much as we want." she replied.

"Unless they think we will die here. No need to pay us if we die." Rimuru added.

"That too is possible."

"Well, we'll worry about it later, come on! Let's start taking our prize."

"I'll help you, Naruto!" Mi offered with a gentle smile.

"Thank you, Mi-chan!"

 **One hour later – Innermost gallery - "Birthing Chamber" -**

Acting curiously like a colony of ants, instead of normal scorpions, the monsters inhabiting the deepest part of the mines kept patrolling the area, while other four exemplars, twice bigger in sizes and with two poisoned tails on their backs instead of one, stood in guard around a giant nest filled by eggs and with an enormous scorpion sleeping right in its middle.

Stranger still, right on top of the ' _Queen Scorpion_ ' there was the body of a human-looking woman fused up to _her_ thighs with the monster; all this of course happening under the worried gaze of the four mercenaries spying on them from a hidden alcove above the nest.

" **[WARNING! WARNING! Lord Class Monster Detected: Adeine Zora-Nas!]** " _Great Sage_ and Kurama alerted at the same time.

"Adeine, what?" Naruto muttered confused.

"Adeine Zora-Nas?" Tanya said.

"Yes?"

"Shit. That is a Lord Class Monster! An extremely-high evolution, and in case of the scorpions, their highest one. It would explain why there are forming a nest instead of wandering around." the little girl explained with narrowed eyes.

"She is controlling them?" Mi asked.

"Yes, through an innate Skill called [ _ **Sovereign**_ **]**." Rimuru answered.

"Can we kill that thing?"

"Should we fight her head-on alone? Damn difficult, but possible. But with the whole hive backing her? Absolutely not." the loli soldier answered.

"...Rimuru? Hows your Stealth Stat?" Naruto finally asked after a long silence.

"If I go as a ball of Slime instead of looking like a human? [ _Stealth LV 8]_ and [ _Camouflage LV 2_ ]."

"I hope it will be enough."

"What are you planning?"

"Me and you will bring the bombs in key points and especially behind that thing's nest and then we blow everything to dust. IF something survive we will fight it, at least it will be weakened by a giant boom!"

"And that ' _Queen'_ seems to have just finished laying eggs, she will be at her weakest, so maybe the explosion will kill her too."

"And how do you two plan to take human-sized bombs that close?" Tanya asked.

"Rimuru can swallow them and I will use my [ _Bag of Holding_ ]. Just pray they won't see us before we have done."

"Be careful." Mi begged him.

Said that the two reborn mercenaries slowly walked back to recover the bombs and then make their ways down to the nest, crouching down to hide behind the various rocks littering the place.

" _Bunch of morons! Greed or not, using those things without checking if they would evolve once eaten enough is a decision worthy of a brain-dead idiot!_ " Naruto mentally cursed as threw himself flat on the ground as soon as one of the scorpions walked by him, making him thank his high-level _Camouflage_ Skill making his skin change slightly in colour to match the ground around him.

" _Naruto! That way!_ " Rimuru whispered with a stumpy arm of his slime body towards an indent right under the nest.

" _If I survive this, I will sue!_ "

" **Me too, our life insurance does not cover giant scorpions!** "

" _Elrune does not have Health_ _Care_ _."_

" **Unfortunately** _ **.**_ _"_

Taking a deep breath the Hobgoblin rolled on the floor to return to his feet, and still standing as low as possible he made his way towards the nest, stopping right next to one of the two-tailed scorpions.

" _Ready?"_ Rimuru mouthed with the mouth-like cavity on his body.

" _Yes._ "

Nodding at each other the two threw a handful of rocks to rattle on the floor making the four guards of the nest perk-up and immediately move to attack the nuisance, and as soon as the giant monsters left, Naruto and Rimuru made a last desperate sprint to enter the nest.

"...Holy...Those things are huge..." the reborn Shinobi muttered in awe while looking at the shher size of the eggs around them, all forty of them.

"Naruto...The eggs are hatching..." Rimuru said in alarm as he saw the first cracks appear on all of them.

"Rimuru...We have a bigger problem..." Naruto countered as he saw the elephant-sized female body on top of the even bigger scorpion half look straight at him in the eye and at the very last explosive barrel in his hands.

"Is the ignition ready?" The Slime asked as both inched away from the Queen Scorpion as she rose to her full height.

"Yes, the fuses are in place, but I think we'll need Tanya's grenades instead." Naruto answered paling as the snarls of the Queen had now attracted the attention of the rest of the hive that was now slowly approaching them.

"Grenades ready! RUN!" Tanya yelled throwing the whole bandoleer she had prepared towards the two fleeing boys once pulled away the pins from every grenade.

"RUUUUN!" Both Slime and Hobgoblin yelled as soon as they reached the two girls.

" **[** _ **Fly**_ **]**!" Tanya yelled covering her body in a golden aura as she flew away.

" **[Mimic: Poison Bat's Wings]!** " Rimuru intoned turning human and growing a pair of giant bat wings covered in thin purple fur to fly away.

"Hold tight!" Naruto ordered taking Mi on a bridal carry and running vertically on the wall.

"Hold tight?"

 _ **BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!**_

A planet-shattering explosion shook the whole mine as a sea of fire flew upward like the eruption of a furious volcano.

"I AM HOLDING TIGHT!" Mi shrieked once seen their flaming doom close rapidly on them,+

"FASTER!" the four of them screamed with bulged-out eyes as soon as they exited the main tunnel to run towards the gate.

"OPEN THE GATE! OPEN IT!" Tanya bellowed.

"CLOSE THE GATE! CLOSE IT!" the Mayor countered scared as he saw Hell itself coming to greet him behind those four mercenaries.

"LIKE HELL YOU WILL! **[RASENGAN!]** " Naruto roared letting go of Mi to summon the sphere of chakra and demolish the gate, along blowing away Mayor and guards.

 _ **FWOOOOOOOOOM!**_

A last, intense tongue of flames blew-out of the entrance before setting down.

"YOU DIDN'T TELL USE THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN THIS POWERFUL, YOU MISERABLE IDIOT!" Tanya roared shoving the tip of her riffle in the Mayor's mouth.

"LEFHT ME ESHPLAIN!" the man begged in tears.

"Let him go!" one of the guards tried saying.

"ROOOOOOOAR!" a loud, ferocious roar pierced the sky as the half-dead Queen Scorpion exited the mines demolishing the door and dragging behind her the two bloody stumps that used to be her tail along most of her broken legs, even one of her human arms were missing and losing blood by the bucketful.

"Screw the Mayor! Kill that thing first!" the same guard yelled in fear.

"Come with me!" Tanya hissed, grabbing the Mayor's head and, surprisingly, dragging him screaming and kicking towards the Queen Scorpion.

"NO! Please no!" the poor man begged, shrieking when the only sane hand of the Queen grabbed his whole body ready to behead him with a bite.

"So?" she asked again.

"The bombs were our last resort! I knew they were powerful! And we knew the liquid of the eggs was flammable! We just didn't expect the two things to react like that, I swear!" the Mayor answered just as the Queen's long tongue licked his whole face to savor him.

"We lost the bodies and the crystals that were already inside the mine carts were all destroyed by your bombs! Who's going to pay the extra for our almost death, eh?!" Tanya asked as she saw the Monster enjoy the Mayor's squeals of fear as it took its time to slowly put his head in her mouth.

"I'LL PAY! I'LL PAY! JUST KILL THIS THING!" the Mayor begged.

"Speak louder, I want to record it." the girl said smirking as she held a small transparent glass sphere next to his face.

"I SWEAR I WILL PAY THE EXTRA! I WILL PERSONALLY PAY THE EXTRA FOR THE UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES IN THIS MISSION! I SWEAR AS THE MAYOR OF OLGA TOWN! NOW HELP MEEEEEEEEE!" the man yelled in tears.

"Sounds good to me." Rimuru said from the Queen's right shoulder.

"Yep!" Naruto confirmed from the left shoulder.

"Then...OFF WITH HER HEAD!" Tanya ordered in glee just as the monster was about to bite down.

"Okay!" Mi said shooting an arrow at the base of the Queen's neck making the Monster roar in pain.

"Together!" Naruto yelled grabbing her head.

"Together!" Rimuru answered doing the same, and with a duo of war-cries the duo started pulling.

"[ **Piercing Shot]!** " Tanya said shooting an over-charged bullet at the Queen severing her spine and opening a huge hole in her neck.

"Yaaaaaaah!" the screaming duo finally got what they wanted from the already almost-dead Queen Scorpion when the entire head went severed from the neck in a giant burst of blood.

 _ **Bang!**_

With a loud thundering noise the Queen Scorpion, already at Death's door after the explosion, couldn't take any more damage to her body and collapsed on the floor with weak spasms still sporadically shocking her massive body.

"This thing sure has a damn strong Vitality." Naruto said impressed as the thing's scorpion eyes were the ones still holding a last spark of life as she watched him in curiosity while weakly clicking her pincers.

"Lord Class Monster. Those are damn rare to find and even harder to kill. Today we have been lucky, she was weakened by giving birth to her eggs and after we blew her up, along burying her under who knows how many tonnes of rock.

Should there be a next time, we'll have to fight it properly and it won't be easy." Tanya answered pointing her riffle between the thing's eyes and pulling the trigger to blew the whole head to dust, finally killing the Queen.

"Well, I say that the more-or-less whole corpse of a Lord Class Monster should cover nicely for your incompetence. But, are there any more eggs?" Tanya asked pointing the riffle on the Mayor's forehead.

"That way!" the man shrieked and immediately pointed towards an isolated warehouse isolated from the rest of the small houses.

"[ **Shadow Fire]!** " Naruto chanted burning the whole complex down until nothing remained.

"Not anymore. I guess you will keep mining the old way, right? No more Monsters."

"Of Course!" the Mayor answered nodding as fast as he could.

"Then we'll take our leave! Any idea how to carry this thing?" Mi asked curious as she watched the giant corpse in front of her.

"Your Bag?" Rimuru asked.

"Too big, the thing is a low-rank one, it can't contain something this massive." Naruto answered sad.

"Okay! I'll try swallow it and then spit it out once back to Serena City." the other said sighing and turning into a featureless silhouette of translucent slime.

" **[Innate Skill: Predate]**!" with a simple exclamation the body grew to huge sizes to swallow the dead Queen whole and then compressing back to his original size and human appearances.

"I hope you will manage to spit it out, that is our extra." Tanya hissed as she mounted back on the lizard they used to reach the town.

"I will, I will." the Slime answered as the four rode away without turning back.

"Okay then! Farewell!"

"Goodbye!" Mi yelled waving at the Mayor while the giant doors of Olga Town closed behind them.

"..."

"..."

"The other eggs?" The Mayor asked faintly once he saw them turn into tiny dots in the horizon.

"Untouched and safely hidden in the second warehouse, sir."

"Good! Luckily they don't know about those!"

 **Far Away -**

"...They have more eggs, isn't it? That's why he wasn't angry at your telling him to stop using scorpions." Mi said sighing.

"Exactly, and it doesn't take a super Appraising Ability like those two to guess why he did that. In the name of profit and margins, turning a blind eye to things like Safety and Decency is a tactic as old as the World itself. And having seen the sheer level of incompetence they are plagued with, things will only repeat themselves." Tanya answered.

"Should we take the mission again if that happens?"

"I would say no, but I guess it is not solely up to me."

"We will cross that bridge when the time comes." Naruto answered.

"Oh-Ooooh! What a nice answer! I didn't expect you to be able!" Tanya said smirking.

"Again, you and Rimuru-kun have some misconception about me! You are talking with the real deal, a living being, not a Manga character!" he answered smirking and making her chuckle.

"That is why nobody expected me to take few souvenirs." he then said showing his [ _Bag of Holding_ ] with a feral smirk on his face.

"Don't tell me! You really emptied their carts!" Rimuru said with wide eyes.

"Yup! I did it when I went to recover the bombs. Between Crystal Scorpions' parts and several hundreds of units of mined crystals, my little bag is ready to burst! I even got a piece of [ _Everlasting Ice_ ], like that you will be able to wear that coat of yours in every climate, Tanya." Naruto admitted smirking.

"At least they blew-up the mine by mistake, like that we won't have to hear them moan about it!"

"Perfect alibi and a 200% increase in our payment, this is music to my ears, I love it when profits surpass expectations!" Tanya answered looking extremely happy.

 **A Month Later – Serena City – Monster Star Guild HQ -**

Having long returned from their mission in Olga Town, the group had settled-down for easier and calmer job while waiting for Andre to finish producing the new weapon he promised Naruto.

"Honestly, those work ethics would be considered insane even by our most fanatical brethren, and yet a human is doing it." Olaf admitted impressed as they kept hearing the furry of clanging noises Andre's hammer was producing nonstop at ludicrous speed.

"I guess you learned a lot from him?" Naruto asked.

"Of course! There are things he knows that are both extremely taboo and simply crazy!"

"But you learned them all the same!" the shinobi said laughing.

"You can bet on it!...Hey! Did he stop?" the Dwarf answered, and growing surprised when the noise stopped and the blinding light shining behind the forge's closed door died down abruptly.

"Finished! Finally!" Andre, looking completely drenched in sweat and dead tired, said happily as he kicked open the door.

"And the weapon?" Mi asked curious.

"Here! She only lacks a name! So give her a cute one, she is a shy little thing and deserves some love." Andre answered throwing a giant iron club on the floor producing a _**WHAM!**_ Sound that rattled the windows.

"Little?" Tanya asked in disbelief as the thing was even taller than her whole body.

"Aye! Considering that Naruto is more on the brawler side of things and likes to smash through everything stupid enough to stand between him and his Target, I decided to make a club instead of a sword.

I first created the rough shape of the weapon from that fang and then kept heating and hammering it it into its current size by compressing the fang. The now super-dense material is even harder than Mithril! If he breaks this too I swear I will tear off my dick and eat it, because I won't be able to survive the shame as a man, let alone a Master of the Forge!" Andre answered proud.

"Wow! It weights a ton!" Naruto said impressed.

"Hahahaha! Let me introduce her to you! Your new weapon is a huge club 2 meters and 60 centimeters long and only weighting around a hundred kilograms, all the power of a God's Wrath condensed in a more manageable pocket version! The whole weapon has an octagonal shape, with smaller diagonal edges adorned with a series of spikes alternated to broader ones.

A small gift, those are [ _Ancient Wyvern_ ] fangs, second only to Dragons teeth, don't underestimate them.

The handle is covered in bandages made from Devil Frog Skin, best grip material doesn't exist in this world, and as you can see the weapon grows larger from the handle onwards, in a vague cone shape; it helps the swings and screws with enemies depth perception. There's a squared ring attached to the pommel of the weapon, I have put your Guild Mark on it, as a tasteful decoration. Do you like it?" the man asked.

"She is amazing. Sure I will need to get used to the weight, but I love it!" Naruto answered with a wide smile as he lifted the iron club to admire its sublime appearances.

"And her name?" Andre asked with crossed arms.

"Her name?...Uhm... _ **Kokusosou?**_ " he tried saying.

"A name in Lunar Language... **Black Clawed Comb**? Yes, I think it fits." Andre admitted looking pleased.

"And with that, you revised/created weapons and armours for all of us...Does this mean it's time for you to leave?" Lars asked sadly.

"For now, but if you need, blow on this horn and a friend of mine will come to take you to me wherever I am staying at the moment, just use it for emergencies only, I prefer being on the move and by myself. I am more at ease in the forge than with people." Andre answered giving to Olaf an ornate horn with a brass mouth-piece.

"Thank you." the dwarf answered with a touched expression.

"You three are the Chosen of the Sleeping Guardians, your Fate is tangled deeply with the Fate of Elrune, helping you was the very least I could do as a way to pay for part of my past Sins. Be careful, I gave you the beast weapons I can create, and when the time comes, proper armours too will follow, but for that it is still too soon."

"How do you..." Naruto asked with wide eyes.

"Little Naruto, I may prefer to spend my days wasted drunk, but I am no fool. One doesn't live as long as me and with the ' _Luggage'_ I have on my soul and doesn't learn a thing or two. The holder of the [ _Hero]_ Title will be your cover, Fate will focus its eyes mostly on him and his pals, so you three will have a bit less weight on your shoulders, but still, be always on guard. When you all will be ready, I will come looking for you and will give you the right gadget to fulfill your Mission, then I too will finally find peace." Andre answered.

"Thank you, Andre. For everything." Rimuru said grateful.

"Rimuru, your _**Durandal**_ sword will serve you well, just like Tanya's _**Nimrod**_ riffle will. I have great Faith in you using those three Masterpieces well, a sense of faith the likes of which I have not felt in a long while.

Farewell, my friends! Now, I am out to drink, since for all my great words, I still hide behind alcohol to not hear the voices of the people I could not protect from my King's madness." Andre said sighing as he opened the door to find a kid ready to knock on that same door.

He was a bright-eyed teenager with amber eyes and platinum-blond hair and wearing a simple leather armour with a silver rapier sheathed to his waist.

"May I help you?" Naruto asked curious.

"Andre the Legendary Blacksmith!" the bright-eyed boy gasped with a wide smile.

"Yes?" the man asked clearly in dread.

"Nice to meet you! My name is Tim and me and my friends need your help to save the World!" the boy said grabbing the man's hand in both of his while the rest of his group walked forward.

" _Ugh_..." the Blacksmith uttered with a pained sigh while he looked at Naruto's Guild behind him as if asking for help.

"Guests?" Fist the mountain Troll asked with a dumb expression.

"Yes, Fist." Olaf answered sighing.

"Should Fist prepare tea for guests?"

"If you don't mind." the dwarf answered shrugging.

"Fist will go take kettle. Milk? Sugar? Honey?"

"Bring a bit of everything, just in case."

"Fist will." the Troll answered with a nod while walking towards the kitchen.

"They even got a Mountain Troll! And the legendary former Captain Lars Bluelette is a member too!" the young girl in pristine white Cleric robes muttered awed.

"Yes, please remind me of my unjust disgrace, who cares for my misery, eh?" Lars said groaning.

"Tch!" the broody boy in chain-mail and with a plain lance strapped to his back answered disinterested at that.

"I am sorry if we came to disturb! But it's about the fate of the world!" another boy in shining plated armor said looking sorry.

"Oh, joy! A too idealistic Hero, a broody friend/side-kick boy, a warrior boy with delusions about ' _True Justice',_ a naive Cleric Girl and I bet you have a pessimist Black Mage girl too! I am amazed such a group survived until now with how ' _cliche'_ all of you are!" a new voice said in disbelief.

"Shit! A Flügel?!" the dark-haired boy with the lance gasped while fumbling a little to take out his lance just like the warrior boy next to him did with his own claymore sword.

"Oh, Goddess Elrune give me strength! There isn't a single thing right in their form or poise! Who trained them!? A dead dog?!" Lars was heard muttering horrified at the long time it took them to prepare their weapons, even if they took just few seconds from an outsider's point of view.

"Just new guests, Jibril-chan! All okay on your side?" Naruto answered smiling wide.

The new arrival was a girl with her midriff exposed and wearing a long skirt; she had long purple-pink hair that reached down to her knees and two white wings protruding near her hips, her pupils were purple surrounded by a gold iris and even her ears were wing-shaped.

She also had a halo over her head, surprisingly.

She was the help the Dark Lord Ainz had sent Naruto in exchange for him basically playing ' _Babysitter'_ to Albedo and Alice while they trained to become great warriors; Jibril was a great historian and all-around knowledge-enthusiast that accepted immediately as soon as her beloved ' _Uncle Ainz'_ was coerced into giving her enough funds to organize the Guild Library the way she wanted.

"Yes. I finally got everything we need, pretty much, they could not give me the original diaries of ' _Ohgma the_ _Wise_ ', so we had to copy it by hand though." the girl replied with an annoyed huff worthy of a little kid.

"Yes, that was exceptionally boring." Alice added as she and Albedo too arrived, once not-too-gently moved the [ _Hero_ ] Group aside, to enter the Guild Building.

"An Echidna and a Succubus as well?!" the Cleric girl hissed in contempt.

"Wait! You are...You are the Princess! Alice!" the young boy with the Hero Title gasped in shock.

"Yes, what about it?" the snake girl asked with narrowed eyes.

"Can you help me get an audience with your father, His Majesty the King? We need to speak with him!" the boy asked trying to get closer only for Albedo's new halberd to appear in front of his face to stop him, along every other Guild member preparing their weapons as well.

"I don't like the spikes on that Troll's giant hammer." the warrior muttered.

"Why? The jagged club of the Hobgoblin instead looks friendly to you?" the Lancer countered in dread.

"That too, both are a bit too merciless-looking for my tastes."

"The Argent..." the Black Mage in the meantime hissed grabbing her staff until her knuckles turned white.

"Uh? Do I know you?" Tanya asked back with childish curiosity.

"You killed my father!"

"I killed a lot of people when I was working for Barad-Se. You'll need to be a bit more specific." she replied turning her simple smile into a fanged grin.

"The Fortress of Mistdome, you were at the head of the flying squadron that broke the siege and caused that sacred land for Mages to fall." the Black Mage answered with tears already escaping her.

"For all that is worth, I had nothing personal against him or the others, just like every soldier that was there with me, I just killed the people on the side my HQ labeled as ' _Enemies'._ Soldiers on the front-lines barely fight for personal reasons, it's just our job.

Learn this, little girl, had roles been reversed HE would have put a bullet in my head, and instead of calling him a murderer you would have praised him as a hero. Hypocrisy at its finest!" Tanya said with icy detachment that had the other girl stumble back in disbelief.

"Soulless! You have no soul! You are even worse than the Monsters out there!" the Cleric answered shocked.

"Can we please calm down and talk like civilized people? Before somebody does something stupid and things escalate." Naruto begged groaning.

"I never thought that one day a dirty Hobgoblin would have been the voice of reason!" the Black Mage girl said shaking her head.

 _ **Thunk!**_

"KYAH!" she screamed in fear though when an arrow managed to hit the head of her staff forcefully tearing it away from her hands.

"Naruto is not dirty! We are not inferior because Hobgoblins, so insult us again and I will hit your head!" Mi hissed angrily as she prepared a new arrow.

"Fist thinks Little Sister Mi is learning Human words nice!" Fist admitted impressed.

"She is tired to have me translate for her, so she is studying hard thanks to Jibril." Rimuru confirmed proud.

"Everybody calm down!" Andre said loudly snapping the others out of their war of glares.

"I am going to get a drink, you do what you want, just don't fight."

"WAIT! Tim needs a weapon able to vanquish the Forces of Evil! He was born with the [ _Hero]_ Title just like the Church of Elrune foretold and that means that his fate is to save the world! And He will need everybody's help!" the Cleric said with a tone bordering on the fanaticism only Andre and the Monster Star Guild Members seemed to catch, making all of them momentarily gain a worried look on their faces.

"Fist doesn't like her, she talks like mad people." the Troll admitted with a low voice.

"Me too, my friend, me too." Lars confirmed.

"Listen, kiddo. You are not ready yet." Andre answered with a serious tone.

"Not ready yet? Why?" Tim asked with an extremely worried tone.

"We have a world to save, we have not time to play around!" the Lancer added grunting.

" **Has the Uchiha been reborn too?** "

" _No, Kurama. He still has not talked about killing a family member for revenge nor about nobody on the whole frigging planet understanding his pain. So that's not Sasuke._ " Naruto answered making his Biju companion snort in amusement.

"Please tell us then, Master Andre! What does the Chosen One needs to do to wield the Final Weapon to defeat Evil only a supreme Master like you can create?" the Cleric girl asked, unashamed to turn the flattery up to eleven thousand just to reach her goal.

"His spirit has not been refined, nor his body has been put through the real flames of battle. When the day comes and this small iron dagger has become a glorious Sword of Light, THEN he will be ready to wield the Light of Justice and save the land. And that will be the moment in which I will forge...T-T-The Master Sword for him! Yeah, the Master Sword." Andre said sounding profound and enlightened and lightly stumbling on his words only towards the end.

" _Bullshit! You just threw few random wise-sounding words around just to save yourself the trouble!_ " Now that they really knew him, Naruto and the others immediately understood what the blacksmith was trying to do, but for the sake of their benefactor and friend, they kept quiet. Even Fist.

" _Master Sword_?" Olaf silently mouthed to him, unseen.

" _The first name I came up with!_ " the blacksmith mouthed back with a sorry expression.

"The Master Sword...We'll do it! We will work hard to save the world, and I will do everything in my power to be worthy of bringing light to this land! Don't worry Princess, I will protect your father!" the young Hero promised in pure hot-blooded innocence.

"Yeah...I am rooting for you." Alice answered with a forced smile.

"Yes, keep telling the creep what he wants to hear and keep some safe distance." Albedo prompted her with a worried look.

"Let's go! We need to see if there are more Missions! I bet that we will be able to see the real reason why the monsters are becoming restless soon if we continue!" the Cleric said pulling on Tim's hand to drag him away.

"A new Dark Lord maybe?" the Warrior asked following them.

"Probably, it would explain why he was born with the Title, to be its perfect antithesis." the Lancer confirmed as the small group rapidly moved away.

 _ **Slam!**_

As soon as the door to their Guild slammed close, the entire Guild left-out a sigh of relief at having escaped the new development.

"..."

"..."

"Ten CZ say that the Church itself not only is Championing him, but filling his head in bullshit to maneuver him like they want." Naruto proposed out of the blue and producing said copper coins from a pocket.

"Looking at how that Cleric talked? No bet, she is clearly there to guide him and probably get his kids once old enough, just to be sure that the Hero Bloodline will be firmly in their control." Tanya answered with a sigh.

"Let's hope than that the others instead are with him out of real friendship, otherwise I fear his world will be shattered should the worse happen." Andre added.

"Why all that cryptic stuff though?" Rimuru asked.

"Honestly? I am having beer withdrawals and he was standing in the way between me and the pub, so I told him and his crazed friends what they needed to hear.

He is not the first [ _Hero]_ to need the services of a Legendary-Grade Blacksmith! It's Standard Procedure: once reached the rank, we Blacksmiths get from our Masters instructions about what to do with them and how to act the part.

When the time comes I will make him a sword that looks particularly shining and ' _Epic'_ and simply slap a [ _Smite Evil LV10_ ]and [ _Unbreakable_ ]Perkto it, all stuff we usually keep aside just for this occasions. Probably I will ask him to find some obscure materials as well and look very troubled while forging it...You know…' _Believing makes it Real'_ and all that shit." the man answered shrugging uncaring.

"Way to smash the Trope of the hard-to-get _**Ultima Weapon**_..." Rimuru muttered with a miserable expression.

"So my father..." Alice asked unsure.

"We both know what happened in your father's case, Princess." Andre answered with a knowing look.

"Yeah, we do." she admitted blushing embarrassed.

"And our weapons?" Naruto asked.

"Oh! Yours are the real deal, Certified Masterpieces and sum of everything I know and _SHOULD NOT_ know, I want you others to win and save the world after all! Bwahahahaha!...Just do not tell this to anybody, I will get in trouble if this come out." the blacksmith answered laughing proudly.

"We will keep our lips sealed, Master Andre." Lars promised.

"Good, you all are the true heroes that will save this world, you just let those brats get under the limelight and you won't get harassed. Now, if you excuse me, I will go getting sloshed and then return to my endless wandering through Elrune as a whole. Ah! Before I forget, as promised, I left in a bowl near your bed the few shavings I took away from the fang I used for your club, Naruto. Eat them, they will give you some nice abilities and do wonders to your future Evolution Stages!"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, that's a surprise! Bwhahahahahaha!" Andre answered walking away laughing merrily and singing about the joy good alcohol brings to a man.

"What a clever bastard!" the Hobgoblin answered amused.

"But he helped us a lot." MI added.

"True."

"Hey, should we talk with that boy? If we understand their next course of action, we will be able to make sure we won't cross paths too often!" Lars proposed.

"Yes, I too think you should, I don't trust that church girl," Jibril added nodding.

"...He is not thinking that I will marry him if he saves the world, right?" Alice asked worried.

"If he does, I will personally kick his ass! You should be free to marry whoever the hell you want, world savior or not! It's your choice!" Naruto answered immediately.

"Huhuhu! Thank you! My Hobgoblin Prince Charming!" the Princess answered with an amused tone.

"I will help him too." Mi added frowning.

"Bleeeh!" the snake girl countered by sticking out her tongue.

"Very mature, Alice. It really shows your royal blood." Albedo commented rolling her eyes.

"Okay! The show's over! Let's wrap things up with our new equipment and then we will go spying a little on the Hero's Party! New Mission: stay away from trouble so to not be dragged into unnecessary messes!" Lars ordered clapping his hands to get everybody's attention.

"Fist thinks name's too long."

"It was meant to be a joke."

"Then Fist doesn't find the joke fun."

"Oh, stuff it!"

"Fist did it with your mom already."

"OOOOOOH!"

"Okay! Who taught ' _Your Mom'_ jokes to the Mountain Troll?!"

"..."

"Answer me, Dammit!"

"Hahahahaha!"

And so, finally the holder of the [ _Hero_ ] Title and his group of friends finally entered the scenes, Naruto only hoped that the bright-eyed boy won't get burned once things will start going downhill for him too, but as usual, only Time will tell how things will evolve.

 **End of the chapter, expect me to take few pot-shots at the Cliche of the "Teenage Hero" genre.**

 **So! I am finally back on the Fanfiction scene, I did miss it a little, truth be told.**

 **Now: _EVOLUTION_. Should I make Naruto evolve into Ogre next chapter or should I wait for the another chapter? In the original "RE:MONSTER" the MC Evolved pretty rapidly (among other ' _issues'_ I found with the whole thing) so I would prefer to not fall into the same mistakes, not willingly at least. Mistakes and incidents do happen.**

 **Please help me.**

 **Just to reiterate a last time, t** **his** **is not** **my "Safe Space" (and honestly, it never was** **since** **I** **don't need one** **.** **)**

 **But I am not angry.**

 _ **I WILL POST HERE UNTIL I GET BORED AND SWITCH HOBBY, I AM NOT GOING AWAY.**_

 **Ta-Ta!**

 **Tr230.**


End file.
